Tessa Dick Presents: It's a Philip K. Dick World!

Allegro's Mushroom -- book excerpt

2012-01-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

From my work in progress:

My husband Philip K. Dick became obsessed with John M. Allegro’s book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, which was first published in 1970, then disappeared amid a storm of controversy and was finally reissued in 2009, more than 20 years after Allegro’s death at age 65 in 1988. The thesis of Allegro’s book is that Christianity had its origin in a cult of mushroom eaters who told the fictional story of Jesus to disguise their recipes for vision-inducing drugs. He goes on to assert that early Christianity was simply one of many fertility cults.

Allegro was part of the original team that worked on the Dead Sea scrolls, until his refusal to fall in line with the orthodox interpretation of the scrolls led the team leader to publicly attack his work and eventually replace him. Any scholar who disagreed with the official “truth” was ridiculed or ignored by the small team of scholars (usually numbering half a dozen) who jealously guarded their treasure. For example, the team agreed that the scrolls had been written, and then hidden in caves, by a small Jewish sect known as Essenes, even though more recent scholarship tends to support the idea that the scrolls belonged to observant Jews. The scrolls might even have been secretly removed from Jerusalem shortly before the Romans captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple (Golb, pages 143 and 145-146).

Since only a handful of scholars had access to the scrolls, and they refused to allow other scholars to see them – or even to look at photographs of them – the orthodox interpretation faced few serious challenges until the Huntington Library began making microfilm copies of the scrolls available to all qualified scholars in 1991.

Norman Golb asserts that Allegro wrote The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross as a reaction to, and revenge for, being pushed out of the scrolls team (page 126, footnote). It certainly does attack Christianity, as Golb noted, and the primary members of the team were Catholic priests.

When Allegro published his book in 1970, he was immediately attacked by traditional scholars – not only the Dead Sea scrolls team – for his startling thesis that Christianity had its origins in a fertility cult that used hallucinogenic mushrooms. However, more recent scholarship and a number of primary texts and images from early Christianity tend to support Allegro’s theory about Amanita muscaria. However, his book contains errors and wild speculations that make it easy to find fault with his thesis. He seems to find what he is looking for, regardless of whether it actually exists.

The Amanita muscaria is a mushroom with white spots on the bright red cap, sitting atop a white stem. Numerous scholars have pointed out its resemblance to the red-and-white costume worn by Santa Claus. Like most red fruits, this mushroom is poisonous. It also causes hallucinations, plus wild frenzy followed by lethargy. It is also a purge, causing severe diarrhea. Allegro speculated that fertility cults used this mushroom to produce enthusiasm, in the sense of being filled with the divine spirit. He further speculated that Jesus Christ was simply a symbolic character who personified the mushroom. This proposition, of course, ignores the biblical prohibition against sorcery, which at the time meant pharmacy, the use of psychoactive drugs. Yet Allegro insists upon finding secret codes in the Bible that boil down to recipes for hallucinogenic potions.

I am going to be very tough on Allegro’s thesis, but The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross does have a great deal of value as an exploration of ancient religious ideas. I simply cannot agree that every snake is a penis and every womb is the volva (immature mushroom), or that a mushroom is a hermaphroditic creature consisting of a penis to be worshipped as God the Father while penetrating its own womb.

Walgreens helps you with the Express Scripts program problem

2012-01-13T19:01:00.001-08:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

The rising costs of medical care affect us all. In particular, the cost of prescription drugs can make it difficult for us to pay for our health care needs. Walgreens has always been a great place to get quality prescriptions at an affordable price. So I'm glad to see that they are taking steps to help people who are suffering from the problems with Express Scripts.

Despite their best efforts, Walgreens was unable to negotiate a mutually beneficial contract with the Express Scripts provider network, after a year of negotiations. As a result, the contract expired on December 31, 2011, and Walgreens is no longer part of Express Scripts’ pharmacy provider network as of Jan. 1, 2012. This includes all Walgreens pharmacies nationwide and Duane Reade pharmacies in the New York City area. Express Scripts have put America in the middle, while pharmacy profits remain flat and Express Scripts profits increase. As a middleman type of operation, Express Scripts does not provide the services of a pharmacist, while skimming off the profits that should go to the pharmacies,

Walgreens and Express Script

Only patients with certain prescription insurance plans managed by Express Scripts are impacted. It is best to check with your local Walgreens pharmacist to find out for sure if you’re impacted. Patients also can check the back of their prescription insurance card – if it has Express Scripts’ name there, then they may be affected. If it doesn’t say Express Scripts, then they are not affected.

In particular, the military and employers are suffering because Express Scripts requires them to go through pharmacies in the Express Scripts plan. Those who have depended upon Walgreens over the years often have no choice but to resort to the Express Scripts mail-order [plan, which can be expensive and time-consuming.

Patients covered by the Express Scripts program are being forced to change pharmacists and, in many cases to drive long distances to fill their prescriptions. They are gaining no benefits in terms of their costs going down, and they are experiencing a lot of hassle. It is pain with no gain. This was unnecessary, and Walgreens is taking steps to help all those customers who have been affected by the situation.

Walgreens is offering meaningful help to those affected by the situation. Among the steps Walgreens is taking to minimize the disruption is offering a special discount on annual membership for its Prescription Savings Club. An individual can join during a special January promotion for only $5, or $10 for a family membership, and receive savings on more than 8,000 brand name and all generic medications. More than 400 generics are available with a three-month supply for less than $1 a week. Regular annual membership is $20 for an individual and $35 for a family.

Walgreens Prescription Savings Club

What a great deal! Sign me up!

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Walgreens on Twitter

Walgreens on Facebook

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and all I got was this lousy post card

2012-01-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it's actually a letter, but the sentiment is the same.

I never saw a penny of the consultant fee that Jason Koornick promised me for my participation in his PKD biopic, even though the movie has been out for ten years.

That money could pay my bills for two or three months, but when I ask Jason about it, he ignores me.

So all I got was this lousy letter:

Magic mushrooms? John Allegro's book examined

2012-01-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

My next book will be an exploration of John Allegro's book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, a work that fascinated my husband.

Allegro, a member of the Dead Sea scrolls team, developed a shocking thesis about early Christianity. He asserted that it was just one of many fertility cults, and that the early Christians achieved visionary experiences by eating a poisonous mushroom.

Watch for my book and Allegro's book, coming soon.

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The Postmistress - book review

2012-01-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

I read Sarah Blake's novel The Postmistress because it was this month's selection for the local book club.

I have mixed feelings about it, since the story is so important but the author is somewhat lacking in skill to tell it. Here's the beginning of my review:

Sarah Blake used a wealth of actual and imaginary history to craft a tale about ordinary people living through the horrors of Nazi Germany’s march across Europe, the London Blitzkrieg and the pogrom against European Jews. Based partly on research and mostly on imagination, she takes us into the lives of a menagerie – and there lies the problem. She gives us too many main characters, none of whom is the postmistress of the novel’s title. The story of Iris James, Postmistress of Franklin, Massachusetts, turns out to be peripheral to the central story. Moreover, so many stories are told that the central story gets lost in the tangle of smaller stories.

Please follow the link and read my full review. It will increase the pittance that Epinions pays me.

http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_The_Postmistress_Sarah_Blake/content_575649189508

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sneak preview -- my second murder mystery

2011-11-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

Murder Bleeds
A Lavinia Stout Murder Mystery

By Tessa B. Dick

Chapter One

I keep my license with me at all times, even when I am outside California, the only state where it is valid. The shiny, officially embossed, laminated piece of wallet-size paper rests inside one of those plastic pouches that are designed to keep your fishing license dry, even if you fall into a lake. My license reads: Lavinia Stout, Licensed Private investigator. My friends call me Livvy, while other people try to stifle a giggle when they call me Miss Stout, a name that evokes an image quite the opposite of my short, thin body.

I never expected to find myself investigating vampires, even though I thoroughly enjoyed that old TV show “Kolchak, the Night Stalker”. Fantasy is fine for entertainment, but a detective deals in facts.

I’ll explain later how I came to be riding on a Greyhound bus from Phoenix, Arizona, to San Bernardino, California. Let’s just say that my dependable old Honda Accord had finally met its end, not due to any fault of its own, but courtesy of a reckless driver who shared the road with me. I would like to point out here that it’s quite comfortable sleeping in the driver’s seat of a Honda Accord when you recline the seat back as far as it will go.

I had arrived at the station about seven in the morning, but the 8:30 bus was already sold out, so I bought a ticket for the next bus to San Bernardino, which was scheduled for 11:30. If I had known how much it would cost me for a one-way ticket with one checked bag, I might have gone to the airport instead. It would have cost about the same to fly from Phoenix to Ontario, a trip of less than an hour. I was slightly annoyed when they weighed my bag and charged me a couple bucks extra for it, as if this were an airline, where the weight of the load would make a real difference in the fuel consumption. It was too late to change my mind now, since I was too tired to navigate the Phoenix bus system and too cheap to pay for a taxi cab. Moreover, Homeland Security rules made the last-minute purchase of a one-way airline ticket look very suspicious, and I didn’t feel up to having my bags and body searched.

I had come a long way since putting up the new sign on my storefront in the strip mall back home: Lavinia Stout, Private Investigator, replacing Madame Lavinia, Psychic Readings. Somehow, my name seemed to fit the psychic reader more than the detective, but there was no going back now. Ever since my adventure with Mark and Doris Bell in Denver, I had no more taste for deception. But I hadn’t expected to get myself into so much trouble by changing careers. I had rescued the victim of a gang attack, only to have him turn on me and try to strangle me, been accused of murdering a man that I barely knew and sent on a fool’s errand to Phoenix in the middle of summer, when the heat was unbearable. It was actually 117 degrees Fahrenheit, with no spot of shade to be found. At least the bus station was air conditioned, but they kept it so cold that I had to wear a sweater.

The 8:30 bus came and went, leaving about a dozen people still waiting in line because the bus was full. I surveyed the other passengers at the Phoenix station, wondering whether I would be riding with any of them – even the thought of the shadowy people that I had encountered back in the mountains sent a shiver through my spine like a cat wrapping itself around a pole. I had begun to believe that vampires were real. They certainly did drink blood, but sunlight didn’t seem to bother them, and they even wore large silver crosses on their black leather outfits. Even so, a few of them did seem to have an uncanny ability to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as mysteriously.

The people in the bus station seemed ordinary enough. I first noticed two young Chinese men who sat on their suitcases conversing in their native language. From their clothing – black slacks and white shirts – I guessed that they were college students. From their haircuts – long on one side and very stylish – I guessed that they were from Taiwan and had money. I wondered why they didn’t rent a car.

A couple with three small children waited in the priority boarding line where you could be assured of a seat and you could get on the bus ahead of ordinary passengers, for a fee of $5 for each adult. If I had small children, I would have thought it well worth the extra money. I also noticed that the woman had another baby coming; she appeared to be about ready to give birth at any moment. I hoped that it wouldn’t happen before we got to San Bernardino.

A blond man with a backpack that looked too heavy for his thin frame explained to me that he had been trying to get on a bus since midnight, but Greyhound had oversold the seats and he kept getting bumped. That sounded like another good reason to pay for priority boarding. I considered it, but my parsimonious nature prevailed.

I made my way to the coffee shop nestled in a room about the size of a cubby hole set into the wall opposite the ticket counter, weaving a path among bags and boxes sitting on the floor and waiting passengers in various poses, until finally I approached the few overpriced items of food and drink that they offered. A standing rack made of folded cardboard displayed paperback books with garish covers. Half a dozen little round, white plastic tables stood just outside the coffee shop, and a few generous people had left magazines and newspapers on the tables for others to read. I bought a small cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. It cost me almost $6, which I considered outrageous, but I needed the caffeine and calories.

Various announcements came over the loudspeaker from time to time, but it was so crackly that I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Passengers lined up and boarded buses for various locations in Arizona and New Mexico, but the line for San Bernardino stayed put. People milled around, talked to each other, watched cartoons on the overhead television set and sometimes sat on the steel benches that had been provided by some twisted sadist. If you had a pillow, sitting on those benches could be made less painful. I did not have a pillow. The waiting time dragged like an abused puppy who is afraid to walk on a leash.

When I first arrived at the station, one of the two overhead television sets had been showing the cable news, but at 9:00 it switched to the same cartoons that were on the other set. I set my bag down on the floor and sat on it, which turned out to be much more comfortable than the steel benches.

Flickering Reality -- book review

2011-10-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

So sorry that it took me this long to figure out how to upload my stuff at the library. It's a long story, but I no longer have Internet at home. I'm really broke and unable to work, and still trying to maneuver thru the disability maze.

Here's my review of A Flickering Reality, and great nonfiction book that looks at alternate reailty in film.

David Peat’s A Flickering Reality: Cinema and the nature of reality

My interest in this book began form the fact that it discusses some of the films that have been based on books and stories by my husband Philip K. Dick. However, the value of the work does not end there. In fact, David Peat outlines our recent technological history with a view to the reasons why our reality is very much like the movies, as well as the reasons why computers cannot achieve true artificial intelligence, but only an approximation thereof.

I found myself immersed in David Peat’s train of thought as he led me through the mirrors of mind, movie and reality. He explores the meaning of human consciousness while focusing on films like The Truman Show, The Matrix and The Men who Stare at Goats.

This exploration of science and philosophy goes beyond the movies to the fabric of our reality and the essence of ourselves.

Peat invites us to speculate as to whether we live in a simulated reality and whether we, ourselves are real.

It’s a fascinating read.

Five stars out of five.

Excellent!

David Peat
A Flickering Reality: Cinema and the nature of reality
Pari, Italy: Pari Publishing, 2011

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thank God for the public library

2011-09-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

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Now that I have no Internet at home, due to financial problems, I am limited to one hour of Internet access at the publikc library, whcih would not be so bad if I didn't have to alk a mile to get here.

I still have no car, so I hoof it everywhere.

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Pre-crime in the real world

2011-09-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

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In Philip K. Dick's story (and the Tom Cruise film), mutants with precognitive abilities predict that someone will commit a crime, so the police can arrest them and prevent them from committing the crime.

In the real world, a computer program uses an algorithm to predict crime. Police in Santa Cruz, California are actually using it to prevent burglaries and car break-ins.

The heart of the program is the belief that criminals often commit a second or third crime in the same location and the same time as a first successful crime. For example, if a burglar is successful breaking into a home at 2 p.m. in a certain neighborhood because no

one is home, the criminal will use that experience to do it again to another house in the same neighborhood around the same time.

In the case of Santa Cruz, on California’s central coast and home to a University of California campus, that would be about four days later.

The algorithm knows this because Mohler has fed eight years of data on crimes in Santa Cruz into the algorithm.

http://www.clusterflock.org/2011/09/unlike-philip-k-dicks-novel-the-minority-report-or-the-film-inspired-by-the-novel-the-program-relies-on-algorithms-and-not-mutants-to-predict-the-likelihood-of-something-happening.html

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Natural health products

2011-09-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

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I have joined a new affiliate program to help me make a few bucks and provide my readers with some awesome natural health products.

Please check it out:

The Natural News Store

Thank you so much!

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The Arranger -- book review & giveaway

2011-09-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

One commenter on this post will receive a free ebook (pdf) copy of the novel The Arranger by L.J. Sellers.

L.J. Sellers writes thrillers in a sparse journalistic style. In fact,they are too sparse for my taste. I want to see more description of the setting, as well as more character development. That having been said, these novels keep me riveted from page one to the end.

I recently reviewed Sellers' Secrets to Die For, with basically the same criticism. The Arranger creates suspense and maintains it, but I still want more depth.

The story begins with Lara, an emergency medical technician, explaining to a woman how she can get her husband treated at an emergency room, despite the fact that he does not have a "med card". Perhaps this is a British thing, but to my American sensibilities, it sounds futuristic. Our emergency rooms treat anybody who walks, crawls or is carried in.

Nope, it isn't a British thing, since it takes place among the Sequoias, i.e. the redwood forest, which can be only California or Florida-0 I was wrong -- it's Oregon. I'm confused, but the story carries me along as Lara gets shot at, chased by a large dog and generally attacked. This seems strange and surreal.

She is taking part in the Gauntlet, whatever that is, running around taking care of emergency medical problems with a variety of futuristic bandages and such. Her van is equipped with a computer that has Internet access. She doesn't have a partner, which is odd. I'm not an expert, but I do know that paramedics never work solo.

Sure enough, the conflict keeps me reading, the tension never eases, and yet I hate being so confused. Things need to be explained. This poor reader is floundering.

The Arranger is good, but not as good as Secrets to Die For.

Three out of five stars. Recommended, but not Sellers' best effort.

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This review is part of Nurture Book Tourz

September 7th – Mason C. @ Thoughts in Progress - May giveaway One (1) eBook Copy

September 7th – Christina I. @ Middle of the Road Reviews - May giveaway One (1) Print Copy

September 8th – April R. @ My Book Addiction and More - May giveaway One (1) Print Copy

September 8th – Sue F. @ Books, Books, The Magical Fruit - May giveaway One (1) eBook Copy

September 9th – Laurie J. @ Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews - May giveaway One (1) Print Copy
September 12th – Aparajita B. @ Le’ Grande Codex - May giveaway One (1) eBook Copy

September 12th – Jaidis S. @ Juniper Grove

FOR THE COMPLETE SCHEDULE, HERE IS THE

Link to the author's tour page: http://nurtureyourbooks.com/vbtblog/?p=1757

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Here are some more useful links:

Where you can find & follow L.J. Sellers:

Author Website

Author Blog

Twitter

Facebook Page

Facebook Profile

Goodreads Profile

Buy the BOOK at:

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

Amazon.co.uk

Author Blog

Independent Bookstores (by request)

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And remember, one commenter on this post will receive a free pdf of the novel The Arranger by L.J. Sellers.

8-)

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Cell phone blues got you down?

2011-09-11T00:01:00.001-07:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Cell phones -=- for all their convenience and versatility -- have become a source of frustration for me. The bill can break me, the signal can fade out -- basically, the major problem for me has been that I lose minutes that expire and pay way too much for the service that I do use.

Whether it was a year or two on a contract with a "free" phone, or a prepaid plan with a cheap phone, I've always felt ripped off my cell phone companies.

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Vampires on the loose -- book review, Stargazer, by Miguel Conner

2011-08-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

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“And we might once again gaze at stars.” (p. 41)

In a post-apocalyptic world, Stargazers raise Warm Ones on farms, harvest them for their blood and use them for sport. The best literature leads us to feel sympathy for the villain, but in this novel the villain is also the hero, which increases our sympathy to an excruciating level. We get a look at ourselves through the looking glass of the night sky.

The Stargazers are vampires. They consider the Warm Ones animals, even though they look a lot like Stargazers and have language and culture. For all their superiority, the Stargazers suffer from one major weakness and one minor weakness – they are helpless while the sun is in the sky, and they stifle creativity in their society.

When Byron, branded a heretic by the Stargazer Elders, meets a Warm One and gets to know her as a person, the conflict turns from external to internal. As Alice learned, one should never get to know one’s food by name; such familiarity makes it impossible to eat it.

As with most self-published books, this one could use a good copy editor. However, the minor typographical errors do not stop me from plowing through the story. I want to know what happens next.

On the larger scale, will the air pollution clear up to reveal the stars that once dotted the night sky? On the medium scale, will the Elders relax the draconian laws that restrict the lives of the Stargazers? On the small scale, will Byron survive to complete his mission?

On the most personal level, at least for us Warm Ones (humans), will the human race triumph over the vampires?

Read Miguel Conner’s Stargazer to find out.

Stargazer
by Miguel Conner
2011, Aeon Byte Press
280 pages

Available at Barnes & Noble

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stargazer/Miguel-Conner/e/9780615367217/?itm=1&USRI=stargazer+miguel+conner

Also available on Amazon Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/Stargazer-Dark-Instinct-Book-ebook/dp/B004XDA0HI/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

and Barnes & Noble Nook

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stargazer/Miguel-Conner/e/2940012275714/?itm=1&USRI=miguel+conner+stargazer

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What I'm reading now

2011-08-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

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I have a number things to read every day, but books are still my first love.

Here's what I'm focused (more or less) on at the moment:

Stargazer by Miguel Conner, a novel about a vampire with a conscience living in a post-apocalyptic world. This is my favorite novel at the moment.

A Flickering Reality by F. David Peat, an exploration of -- well, as the subtitle says, "Cinema and the nature of reality" -- it mentions Philip K. Dick. This book interests me because I have studied film and taught several film classes.

The Arranger by L.J. Sellers, a detective / thriller novel written in journalistic style, fast-paced and exciting.

Reviews will eventually appear on this blog.

What are YOU reading? Any recommendations?

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Another attack on small family farms

2011-08-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

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Small farmers built this nation, and they are under increasing attack from the very nation they built.

Here is just one more example of those attacks:

More on raw milk raids

2011-08-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

Since when it is the business of government to tell us what we can and can't eat?

We can eat raw oysters, raw fish and raw steak, but NOT raw milk! Of course not, since the organic farmers compete with large corporate dairies! Raw milk is not inherently dangerous,a nd pasteurized milk is not inherently safe.

Pasteurization simply reduces the number of bacteria, a step which makes the milk from large factory farms less dangerous.

Raw milk is safe when produced from healthy cows kept in clean conditions. Pateurized milk is not safe when produced from unhealthy cows in filthy conditions.

(NaturalNews) The Rawesome Foods raid that took place August 3, 2011, is being publicly described by many as an act of "government terrorism" against innocents

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033318_government_agents_Rawesome_Foods.html#ixzz1V3XcZ100

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Produce raw milk, go to jail!

2011-08-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

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A small Amish farmer was treated the same as a drug lord selling dangerous drugs, just because he sold raw milk. In other words, his milk was not pasteurized. And for this, the federal government spent tens of thousands of our tax dollars on a year-long investigation of a small farmer. This is not the only case -- it is happening all over the nation.

The same people who eat sushi, steak tartar and raw oysters have made raw milk illegal, regardless of whether it is safe.

The truth is that pasteurization only reduces the chances of milk being contaminated with bacteria. And factory dairies that produce milk in unsafe conditions must pasteurize their milk product because they produce that milk in filthy conditions.

Moreover, who is the government to tell us what kind of food we may or may not eat? They are simply trying to put a stop to the organic food movement and to eliminate small farmers who take a market share away from the corporate factory farms.

In the end, this is a matter of personal choice.

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Neil Diamond still going strong - and still inspiring

2011-08-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

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When I was a teenager and feeling worthless and hopeless, Neil Diamond's music saved what little sanity I had left. This particular song was playing on the radio several times a day. "I am, I said"

And at age 70, he is still going strong with that wonderful voice and his marvelous songs.

I remember being at school and doing my work while the radio played this and other Neil Diamond songs.

The spiritual quality of his music still touches my heart and my soul.

Sample of PKD handwriting

2011-08-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

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Thought this might interest fans of Phil:

Back to school coupons - site support links

2011-08-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

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Please help support this site (and my books) by taking advantage of one or more of these coupons from my Linkshare affiliate account. You will save some $. Thank you so much!

Save $1 off $10 of your favorite books, music, movies, & video games when you use coupon code STRIVE on checkout at www.alibris.com. This offer expires September 30, 2011.

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Save $2 off $20 of your favorite books, music, movies, & video games when you use coupon code LEARN on checkout at www.alibris.com. This offer expires September 30, 2011.

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Back to School Specials! Cell Phone Chargers, Spare Batteries, Bluetooths - Up To 80% Off!!

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10% off all school supplies with the code ASPBTS10. Valid 8/1-8/11

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BACK TO SCHOOL SALE! Save up to 45%: Pre-K to Post-Grad: Thousands of New Items!

~~~

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THANK YOU!

~~~

Book Review: Bob Wacszowski, Necromancer

2011-07-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

Book Review: Bob Wacszowski, Necromancer

being the story of a regular guy

who learns how to animate and command the dead

a death-comedy novel by

George Dalphin

Narrated by an extra-dimensional alien, this novel presents a post-Bob world in which a new religion has taken hold, despite the best efforts of Bob to avoid such an outcome. The opening sentence of Chapter 1 reminds me of Snoopy’s novel, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Not a good omen. I question the metaphor, “merely a cardboard cutout of the sun behind the clouds” as an unlikely sight.

Somehow it reminds me of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Not that the plot is similar, because it isn’t, but because it has that same tongue-in-cheek humor that you often find in British literature.

Bob’s girlfriend Anna breaks up with him because he has never grown up, depends on her for money and even for a working shower and is, in short, a man-child. This inauspicious opening leads to Bob’s discovery of the secret of life – or more properly, the key to reversing death.

Armed with an ancient book that only he can read, Bob sets out to put his own life in order. He has no plans for the rest of the world, but you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Bob Wacszowski, Necromancer is fun to read, despite some awkward phrases and clumsy sentence constructions. The story will take you far into the depths of your own mind and then back again to the everyday world which we call reality.

On a scale of one to five, I give it four stars.

~~~

Available on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Wacszowski-Necromancer-George-Dalphin/dp/1460998170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312145217&sr=1-1

~~~

The last re-write

2011-07-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

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My guest post on Blogging Authors is live now.

"The Last Re-Write"

One of the biggest mistakes that novice writers make is considering the manuscript finished when they have reached the last page and typed “The End”. The story has come to an end, and the plot has been resolved, but the threads within the story nearly always need to be drawn together.

To read more, please visit:

http://www.bloggingauthors.com/blogging_authors/2011/7/6/the-last-re-write.html

~~~

Kindle author interview - Murder Lies

2011-07-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

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David Wisehart was kind enough to post an interview with me about my Kindle book Murder Lies.

http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2011/07/kindle-author-interview-tessa-dick.html

If you have a Kindle book, you can apply to have him interview you, too!

~~~

California killed my Amazon store

2011-06-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

California killed my Amazon store.

In an attempt to collect sales taxes from stores outside the state, the California government has decided that my association with Amazon gives them a physical presence in California, thus requiring Amazon to pay sales tax to California when people buy things from out-of-state merchants.

So Amazon has terminated all California affiliates. Of course, this means that our state government will not get the sales taxes, and they will lose a huge amount of income tax.

Meanwhile, little people like me are getting hurt financially.

Here's what Amazon said to me:

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. Those California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned before today will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.
You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.
To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect your ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.
We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. As mentioned before, we are continuing to work on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.
Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team

~~~

Epilogue to My Life on the Edge of Reality

2011-06-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

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If you bought the first edition of my memoir Tessa B. Dick: My Life on the Edge of Reality, then you need to see the Epilogue that I added to the second edition.

Here it is:

EPILOGUE

“You will remember.” Phil insisted. “And you will write about it.”

Those words echoed in my mind for many years after his sudden and unexpected death from a series of massive strokes. I wrote about it many times, but my books and articles failed to find a market in the traditional publishing industry. Finally, when the Internet began to grow up, the POD (Publishing on Demand) industry gave me an outlet for these words.

I remember, and I write. The last time I saw Phil, he demanded and pleaded that I write about his experiences. I take that mission very seriously.

He never saw the riches that his works have produced since Hollywood discovered that his stories are marketable as movies. The money from Bladerunner allowed him to buy his condominium apartment and a little red sports car (a Mercury Capris, the last model made in Germany). However, Phil never basked in luxury. He continued to lead a middle-class life in Santa Ana, California, until God took him home.

He continued searching for his soul mate, but he never found her. I like to think that I was sitting right there on his sofa, the dark-haired girl that he wrote about in one of his few nonfiction books. Neither of us was suited to a normal life with a regular job, family picnics and soccer games, although we both tried to fit in to that template.

We could be happy with a few cats and a small garden, but we wanted the stars.

Coffee flowed and cigarettes burned while we discussed the nature of reality, the reality of hallucinations and the meaning of everything.

Phil was the only person I could talk to about the demons that haunted me. He often said that I was the only person he could talk to about his visionary experience. We both seemed to be living in two realities, one shared by the rest of humanity and the other ethereal but almost tangible. Shadowy figures would walk through the walls and watch us from the corners of the room. Some would disappear when we saw them or spoke to them, while others would engage in conversation. They didn’t seem to have answers for us; in fact, they asked us questions about our world.

Some of them claimed to be time travelers from our future. They were trying to change our world in order to improve their world. They lived in a nightmare created by their own eugenics program. No longer able to reproduce naturally, they attempted cloning with less than desirable results. They had damaged their own DNA so badly, and limited their gene pool so severely, that they needed to reach into the past to find viable genetic lines. If they could protect those lines from the coming global disaster, they could find people in their time with viable DNA.

They could not grab some DNA from us to take back to their time and use it. They had to make sure that our descendants survived into their time. Failing that, they hoped to find burials and extract DNA from the dead.

Other visitors seemed to be more concerned with religion than with science or the future. Phil read John Allegro’s book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross at least three times, taking notes and discussing it in depth. Allegro, who had early access to the Dead Sea Scrolls, shocked his colleagues with his theory that the early Christians were using hallucinogenic mushrooms and worshipping pine trees.

Phil and I alternated between believing everything and doubting everything. We were children exploring a treasure cave in the woods.

Phil was a loving father to our son Christopher, but I could not live with him during that period when I was going to college. Phil stubbornly resisted my attempts to get outside of our own little universe, to meet people and gain knowledge. He wanted to keep me for himself, trapped in the house like some treasure that you bring out only on special occasions. He feared that I would leave him for another man, but that never happened. In fact, Phil left me to take care of Doris Sauter, who had terminal cancer but is still alive thirty-plus years later.

Phil thought that he could come back to me when Doris moved out, but I couldn’t keep up the rent on our little house on Santa Ysabel in Fullerton, and he had moved into an apartment where children were not allowed. So we visited often and stayed late into the night, our young son enjoying time with his father while we discussed religion, philosophy, psychology and more.

I finished my associate degree at Fullerton Community College and went on to Chapman College, where several of my professors were big fans of Phil’s work. My major had been pre-medicine, but my associate degree was in foreign language, so I majored in communications and went on to take a master’s degree in English literature. The wide-ranging education that Chapman College gave me has served me well over the years. My original goal was to become a veterinarian, but I soon realized that I wanted to be a science writer. That second goal never bore fruit, either.

However, Phil and I grew closer over the years as we both realized that neither of us wanted anybody else. We were planning to remarry on our wedding anniversary, April 18, but Phil died on March 2.

I was devastated, as was our son. Christopher was only nine years old when he lost his father, and he still feels the pain of that loss.

I hope that my words keep Phil’s memory alive. His body has failed, but his words and his spirit live on.

~~~~~

Book Review: "Secrets" - A thrilling who-done-it

2011-06-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

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Book Review: Secrets - A thrilling who-done-it by S. L. Pierce.

This murder mystery is a real page-turner with plenty of action, plot twists and suspects.

The pacing needs a few more slow spots with more detailed descriptions of people and places, but frankly, I couldn't put it down. I would have enjoyed the scenery of the San Francisco Bay Area, but the narrator skips lightly over it.

The climax feels particularly rushed, but it still satisfies. All the clues are there, out in the open, but it kept me guessing right up until the murderer was revealed.

The story begins with a hit man attempting to murder Gwen Michaels, an army veteran who works for a security company. The job turns out to be more difficult than the hired gun had expected.

When Gwen goes into hiding, she must reveal her secret past to her husband Frank and hope that the shock does not cause him to leave her.

Gwen's search for the reasons why she became a target will keep you riveted to the page, no matter the hour and no matter what else you had planned to do. The only distraction for me was my need for caffeine, since Gwen shares my love for coffee, which sent me to the kitchen several times to make a cup for myself.

Four out of five stars.

~~~

~~~

Read a free sample

http://www.freado.com/read/9921/secrets

Buy the BOOK at:

Barnes & Noble – NOOKbook
Smashwords
Amazon.com – Kindle
Amazon.co.uk – Kindle

~~~

This book review is part of the Nurture Virtual Book Tourz

http://nurtureyourbooks.com/vbtblog/?p=930

~~~

A world without books would be like ice cream without a spoon

2011-06-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

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I've been thinking about Fahrenheit 451, in which the job of the fireman is to burn books.

What would the world be like without books?

Sure, we have eBooks, audiobooks and other formats, but technology can fail. Besides, there is nothing quite like the feel of a good book in your hands.

A world without books would be like opera without the music, a marriage without love.

I definitely would miss my books.

~~~

You can find a list of all 30 blogs in this Blogalicious Tour at this site:

http://holesinmysoles.blogspot.com/

~~~

Memoir reviewed

2011-05-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

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My memoir Tessa B. Dick: My Life on the Edge of Reality has received its first Amazon review on Amazon UK.

Excerpt:

"This malnourished dark haired girl was destined to become the muse of one of the greatest writers ever to have graced this planet - Philip K.Dick. Their chance meeting may well have saved his life (indeed it may well have saved hers also). In Tessa, I think he found his intellectual soul mate - indeed he credits Tessa with writing portions of "A Scanner Darkly" - and it was a book they discussed often and at length."

Link to the whole review:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tessa-B-Dick-Life-Reality/dp/1461142695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306660652&sr=1-1

~~~

Giveaway! Frozen pizza for the busy writer -- delicious!

2011-05-10T07:02:00.001-07:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of FRESCHETTA® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
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The deadline is extended until Monday because blogger was having technical difficulties.

This is the very first giveaway on my blog.
I got this great offer to receive a coupon for a free FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™ pizza, plus another coupon to give away on my blog.
Not only that, but the winner of the giveaway will receive a bamboo cutting board. Awesome!
FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™
Now, about the pizza. I've tried several varieties of frozen pizza. including Schwan's, which are very good, but many brands of frozen pizza are like cardboard with tomato sauce. So I was expecting more convenience and less flavor. As a writer who often works into the wee hours as inspiration or desperation hits me, I need a quick and easy meal to fuel my tummy while I work, so pizza is a staple in my kitchen.
Fresschetta Simply Inspired surprised me with great flavor and a thin, crispy crust that almost melts in my mouth.
There are eight varieties, and two of them really called to me.
I had a hard time deciding between Hawaiian Style

and Harvest Supreme, but ultimately I went with the Harvest Supreme.

Visit freschettasimplyinspired.com to learn more about their eight great-tasting varieties.
They even have an offer for you to submit a review and win!
This pizza gave me a rainbow of flavors!
It is very generous with the toppings. The mozzarella cheese is adequate but not overwhelming, and there's also some crumbled feta cheese.
The vegetables are awesome. It has some meat, too, so it is not for the vegetarian.
I don't know what pomodoro sauce is, but it tastes delicious! It's kind of a cheesy tomato.
It has red onions, black olives, bites of spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and hand-pinched Italian sausage.
Freschetta also offers Classic Bruschetta, Chicken Bianco, Farmer's Market Veggie, Rustic Pepperoni Pmodoro, Southern BBQ Recipe Chicken and Tuscan Farmhouse.
The Tuscan Farmhouse and Chicken Bianco are limited edition flavors, so I plan to get them right away, before they're gone.
I like that the packaging keeps the pizza fresh, tasty and colorful, while having less waste in the packaging. The FRESCH-TASTE SEAL™ Packing locks in the vibrant flavors, while using 30% less packaging material.
Visit freschettasimplyinspired.com to learn more about their eight great-tasting varieties.
Now, for the giveaway: I am giving away a coupon for one free Freschetta Simply Inspired Pizza, and a cute little bamboo cutting board. Sorry, I couldn't get a photo of the cutting board for you, but it's round and about 9 inches in diameter. You slide the top around to reveal three cute little wooden-handled tools inside: a cutter, a server and a fork.
To enter, just post a comment on this blog post.
Bonus entry: "Like" www.facebook.com/FreschettaSim… on Facebook and post a second comment here to let me know that you did. Their Facebook page has lots of opportunities for coupons and other goodies!
The winner will be notified by email and/or my comment on this post. The contest ends Friday May 13, 2011.
Good Luck!
Enjoy your pizza! I did.
~~~
FRESCHETTA® Simply…Inspired™
~~~

My memoir is available now!

2011-05-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

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I'll be mailing out signed copies of my memoir Tessa B. Dick: My Life on the Edge of Reality beginning Monday May 8, 2011. Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who trusted me enough to pre-order my book!

It is now available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle, and you can also find it on Barnes & Noble and other sites.

Paperback:

http://www.amazon.com/Tessa-B-Dick-Life-Reality/dp/1461142695/ref=sr_1_6_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304734966&sr=1-6

Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Tessa-B-Dick-Reality-ebook/dp/B004YTMQ32/ref=sr_1_6_title_1_ke?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304734966&sr=1-6

If you want a signed copy, they are $50 each in the US, and $60 each outside the US (that's in US dollars). Just email me at

tuffy777@gmail.com

for the details.

~~~

Memoir almost ready for release

2011-04-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

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My memoir My Life on the Edge of Reality is almost ready for release. All it needs is one final edit, plus the cover art.

Artist extraordinaire Nick Buchanan is working on the cover art as we speak.

This is going to be a detailed look into the events of my own life, with bits and pieces of my experiences with my husband Philip K. Dick. It will be a great companion piece to my other memoir Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright.

~~~

He lives! Happy Resurrection Day!

2011-04-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

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He lives! Happy Resurrection Day!

This is one of my all-time favorite YouTube videos -

Norman Greenbaum, "Spirit in the Sky"

http://youtu.be/WPPlGFh6OpQ

~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt from "My Life on the Edge of Reality"

2011-04-13T20:12:00.001-07:00

I was not surprised when Phil got out of bed and told me that he heard the voice of God on the bedside radio. Phil was recovering from shoulder surgery, and he was taking Percodan for the post-operative pain. He had thrown his own shoulder out of the socket, which had been damaged in a car accident about ten years earlier. What did surprise me is what Phil heard God say to him: “Your son has an inguinal hernia. Call the doctor.” So I called the doctor, made an appointment, got referred to a specialist and learned about our son’s hernia. But I am getting ahead of the story. That happened in August or September 1974, several months after the visitations began.

~~~

Book Review - Mpire: In Search of the Lost

2011-04-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

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In Search of the Lost is the story of Mallory Towneson Haulm, a sexy financial powerhouse, who lives in a quasi paradise in Austin, Texas. His opulent world is decorated with expensive toys and women more exquisite than an exotic candy shop. After fourteen years of separation from his family, Mallory is summoned to return home to join The Family Business. Poised for success, Mallory is focused on turning around the ailing business, not realizing that taking his assigned reigns will put him in a position of unrelenting power which he is unaware he even has. His world crashes as he reunites with his brothers and becomes Death, the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse. With every complication popping up in his life, the biggest one by far is in the form of an old lover from the past coming back to reclaim the spot in Mallory’s heart. – FROM AMAZON.COM

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: PHE Ink (June 1, 2009)
Language: English

~~~

Mpire: In Search of the Lost is the first of a TL James trilogy. In this volume, Mallory Towneson Haulm is called home to join the family business after years of separation. Reluctantly, he joins his brothers for his introduction to the stockholders as the newest board member. While Mallory seems to have a good relationship with his brothers, tension develops between them. And their father creates conflict because he sent Mallory away when he was still a young boy.

The story drew me in at the beginning with an attack by a mysterious black cloud, but then it devolved into a male fantasy of wealth, power and sex -- lots of sex. It verges on -- no, it crosses the line into pornography. This novel definitely is not for children.

While the relationship among the brothers develops, the story slows down to a snail's pace, with an occasional hint of mystery to be revealed later. When the story picks up, we learn along with Mallory himself that he is the Anti-Christ.

This self-published book needs a good copy editor to clean up obvious errors and polish the awkward style, but the story is worth reading.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…TL James graduated with an MBA from LeTourneau University. At LETU, James cultivated an interest in biblical studies and research. Little did James know, but her love for research would become an integral thread in her writing style.
After many sleepless nights, James began writing her first speculative fictional book, with her newly born son tucked comfortably at her side. She developed the family drama storyline that showcases her love of research, biblical studies and literary classics (i.e., Chaucer, Shakespeare and Mythology). The MPire Trilogy was born.
In 2008, TL James revived PHE Ink, a Writing Solutions Firm, after discovering a number of gaps in the publishing industry. James works with aspiring writers, one-on-one, to develop their literary voice. PHE Ink, also, assists entrepreneurs with transforming their business dreams into defined objectives and business plans.
TL James currently resides in Houston, Texas with her son and immediate family.

~~~

Follow the author on her: Website AND Blog

~~~

Memoir almost finished

2011-04-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

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The work on my memoir got put to the side when I fractured my skull in a slip and fall on the ice, but now it's almost finished.

Watch this blog for more excerpts.

Thank you so much for reading!

~~~

WARNING -- do not advertise in the X Zone Chronicles

2011-03-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

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WARNING -- do not buy advertising from Rob McConnell's X Zone Chronicles newsletter -- I bought an ad, and it NEVER ran, and they refuse to give back my money!

~~~

On December 26, 2010, I paid $75 for a 1/4-page ad in the X Zone Chronicles, which seems a bit high for an online publication (no paper or ink costs for them), but they claim that is was a very special issue that has more readers than usual.

So I bought an ad. But they did not run it. Then they promised me in exchange, since it was their error, two half-page ads, one in mid-January and one in mid-February. Once again the ad did not run.

I repeatedly inquired about a refund, since it was their error, but they keep promising me an ad in the future, which of course they NEVER deliver.

And they don't even seem to speak English very well.

~~~

Here is what they say now:

Miss Dick, we have been very understand, increased your ad size from 1/2 page to 1/2 which was published.

You brought it to our attention and we have told you that we will give you 2 x 1/2 page in the March and the April edition of The 'X' Chronicles.

We are making every attempt to rectify this matter - even though the 1/2 page ad as evidenced in your own email to us was done.

The present value of a 1/2 page ad is many times over the $75.00 you paid.

I can assure that I will personally handle your ad and work with you directly to avoid any further misunderstand by either party.

I look forward to your reply.

Rob McConnell

Host and Executive Producer,

The 'X' Zone Radio & TV Show

The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show

The ‘X’ Zone TV Show

REL-MAR McConnell Media Company

www.rel-mar.com

admin@rel-mar.com

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Tel: (905) 575-1222

Toll Free: (800) 610-7035

~~~

Memoir delayed until April

2011-03-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

My memoir, which should have come out this month, has been delayed until next month. So instead of March 2011, it will come out in April 2011.

This delay was unforeseen and unavoidable, as I was badly injured in a slip-and-fall. I get my brain MRI on Friday, two days from now.

If you pre-ordered a copy, you may request a refund or wait one additional month. I will honor all requests for refunds.

If you wish to pre-order a copy of my memoir Tessa B. Dick: My Life on the Edge of Reality, please send $25 by Paypal to

tuffy777@gmail.com

or email me at the above address, if you want to mail a check or money order.

Here's a brief excerpt:

The man told me that they were dropping me from the program because I was neither physically nor mentally fit for long-term space travel. I begged him to give me a chance, promising that I would work very hard, but he only looked sad while telling me that it was impossible. He added that I was remembering too much, and that I might tell the secrets to people who shouldn’t know about the program. So now I’m telling the secrets.

~~~

Two interviews

2011-03-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

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Two interviews with me and Anthony Peake, the amazing author of The Daemon.

This one is in the can:

http://paranormalradionetwork.org/2011/03/13/the-church-of-mabus-tessa-b-dick--anthony-peake-phillip-k-dick-immortalis-spiritus-tribute.aspx

This one is coming up in about an hour:

http://www.soupmedianetwork.com/

~~~

Philip K. Dick: Existentalist

2011-02-17T11:10:00.001-08:00

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Over the course of my ten-year relationship with my husband, I learned that he was more an Existentialist than a Gnostic. His core ideas fall more into line with Kierkegaard and Nietszche, Kafka and Schopenhauer, than with the prophets of Nag Hammadi or the neo-Platonists.

Although he adopted some of the trappings of gnosticism, such as the demiurge and the veil of illusion, Philip K. Dick adopted an eclectic body of knowledge while educating himself at the public library. Like Schopenhauer, he came to the conclusion that the universe is not rational, so we cannot gain a rational understanding of its nature, rules and existence. Like Kafka, he saw us as prisoners who never know what crime has been laid against us.

In line with God's assertion to Moses that his name is "I am", Phil began his study of the human existence.

~~ More to come in future posts.
Thank you for reading!
~~~

This entry is also posted on Wordpress:

http://wp.me/pdXyS-1G

~~~

My Life on the Edge of Reality - available for pre-order

2011-02-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

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With a little help from my friends and family, I got a month's worth of utility bills paid. Unfortunately, I'm still a month behind, so everything is going to get turned off.

You can help by pre-ordering a copy of my memoir Tessa B. Dick: My Life no the Edge of Reality, which will be available in March.

In this book I tell the story of my life, including my relationship with my husband Philip K. Dick (Bladerunner), as well as the government-sponsored experiment on school children in the 1960s. My brother and I were subjects in that experiment, which was conducted without our parents' knowledge or permission.

If you send me $25 by Paypal, I will send you a signed copy as soon as it is available.

My Paypal addy is tuffy777@gmail.com

Thank you so much!

~~~

We are still living in the Roman Empire

2011-02-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

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We are still living in the Roman Empire

Why do high school and college classes in western civilization begin with ancient Greece? (and sometimes ancient Egypt)

Our culture quite clearly has its roots in the tribal cultures of Europe and North America. The U.S. Constitution can be traced back to England's Magna Carta, as well as to the rules of the Iroquois federation. The revolutions in the name of liberty certainly did not have their roots in ancient Greece, where even the great and wise philosopher Socrates obeyed the death sentence that the men of Athens imposed upon him.

The wealthy and powerful elite of the world want us to embrace paganism.

Most of the inhabitants of ancient Greece in its time of glory were descendants of Dan, one of Jacob Israel's twelve sons. They came from different places at different times, most notably from Egypt before the Exodus and from the Holy Land after the Exodus.

The tribe of Dan, according to the Bible, was known for idol worship and for seafaring.

Since they came at different times from different places, they had different names for their pagan gods. They also adopted the local gods that people had been worshiping before they arrived.

So we have a huge Greek pantheon, a group of gods that often give three or four names and histories to the same deity.

The most interesting Greek deities are those that attempt to take the place of Christ as the savior of humanity. Prometheus is said to have created the first man and woman, as well as all the animals. He stole the fire of knowledge from Mount Olympus, and Zeus (Jupiter) punished him by having Hephaestus (Vulcan) chain him to a rock where a giant eagle came every day to eat his liver. Since Prometheus was a god, and therefore immortal, his liver would grow back every day and get eaten again.

Another imitation of Christ is Apollo, the god who wrestled with Python, a wise oracle reminiscent of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and took over the cave where that giant snake used to live. Apollo, the shining one, brought the light of reason to mankind. He also installed his own oracle in the cave, and her prophecies caused many disasters for the wealthy and powerful men who came to her for advice.

We are, in a very real sense, still living in the Roman Empire. Ancient Rome looked to Greek culture for its models, and the Roman Catholic Church is seated in Rome. Perhaps the Church is the enemy of the Roman Empire, but perhaps not. Although I stand up as a Christian believer, I cannot defend the dogma of any established church, Roman or otherwise. Dogma is the enemy of faith, in my opinion.

~~~

Memoir, excerpt #2

2011-02-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

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I remember very little of second grade. The twelve of us were shoved into a third-grade classroom, and I simply cannot remember the teacher’s name. Each of us second-graders was assigned to a third-grade student who was supposed to help us with our work. My third grader couldn’t be bothered, so I floundered, especially in arithmetic. Moreover, we didn’t get any crayons! I did enjoy using skinny pencils and learning cursive writing, especially when the teacher handed out ball point pens for us to use, once we were acceptably competent writing cursive with our pencils.

But most of the second grade is completely gone from my memory, aside from those “special assemblies” when the graduate students were testing us. Fifteen or twenty students from different grade levels would meet in the auditorium or the cafeteria and take tests. I’m sure that one of those tests was the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The researchers were two young men in business suits and a woman in a B-line outfit. I did not like the woman, and I remember her yelling at me that I was deliberately giving the wrong answers on the tests. She was right. I did not like the tests and I did not trust those people. I just sat there in silence until one of the men told her that it was enough.

They must have thought that we were psychic because they kept asking us things like, “What’s in John’s pocket?” and “What’s behind the curtain?” and “What’s in a box at the bank downtown?”

~~~

You can pre-order a signed copy from me for $25, to be delivered in March 2011. (I have bills to pay now.)

~~`

Murder Lies available on Amazon Kindle

2011-01-28T12:33:00.000-08:00

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Now you can see my latest novel, Murder Lies available on Amazon Kindle for only $2.99.

You don't have to buy a Kindle to read it. Amazon offers a free download for your PC, so you can view all Kindle books.

US link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KZOWOQ

UK link (Whispernet):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004KZOWOQ

~~~

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest

2011-01-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

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Yesterday I entered my murder mystery in the annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest -- ABNA.

Murder Lies is finished and entered.

Now I can focus on my memoir.

If you have written a novel that is unpublished or self-published, you can enter it. The contest is totally free.

"Manuscript submissions are now being accepted through February 6, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern Standard Time), or when 5,000 entries have been received in each category, whichever is earlier."

The two categories are general fiction and young adult fiction.

Just go to Amazon dot com or their self-publishing site Create Space dot com to sign up for the contest. You must join Create Space in order to enter the contest, but you are not obligated to use any services at Create Space. I do recommend Create Space for self-publishing because you can do it without paying for any services. All you ever have to buy is one proof copy of your book, and that costs under $20, sometimes under $10, including shipping.

~~~

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011

~~~

My own experience

2011-01-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

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Philip K. Dick experienced mystical visitations throughout his life, beginning in early childhood, although his visions of March 1974 are the best known.

Critics have often wondered why I so easily accepted Phil's experience as valid. Most have put it down to our relationship as husband and wife, assuming that we fell into a folie a deux, a madness shared by two people who reinforced each other's delusions. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I had my own mystical experiences long before I ever met Philip K. Dick.

For the first time, I am writing about those visions in a book-length memoir titled My Life On the Edge of Reality. This book will include anecdotes about my husband that are not included in my memoir Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright.

Here's the beginning of it:

Chapter One, Beginning

I’m approaching that age when my memories of early childhood are more clear than my memory of where I set down my coffee cup. Some people tell me that they remember nothing before their junior year in high school, and that astounds me because I remember my infancy. For example, I remember lying in my crib with mittens on my hands. Mom explained that I was seven months old when my older brother, who was in Kindergarten, brought home the chicken pox virus, and she put the mittens on my hands to prevent me from scratching the blisters and getting scars.

I also remember the first time that I walked. Mom said that I was eight months old when I crept on hands and knees across the living-room carpet to the front window and pulled myself up by holding onto the window ledge. I remember looking outside at our lawn, the sidewalk, the street and the Jacksons’ house. The Jacksons had beautiful flower gardens, and Mrs. Jackson showed me how to open the “mouth” of a snapdragon blossom. We always called it the Jacksons’ house, even after they sold it to a young couple with a little girl who was three years younger than I was – she was four years old and I was seven.

From a very early age, I got daily advice from an invisible companion who stood slightly behind my right shoulder and spoke to me. Nobody else could see Michael, and I never told anybody about him. He was my guardian angel. Michael used to tell me, for example, that it was almost six o’clock, so Daddy would be coming home soon. Since I didn’t know how to tell time, I depended upon him to tell time for me. I hopped down from Daddy’s favorite chair, where I had been sitting, so he could sit down and rest as soon as he came in the door. Michael also told me that the monsters could not see me if I hid under the covers when I went to bed.

Chapter Two, Monsters

It is no coincidence that I love to watch horror movies. I have no use for slasher flicks, which depend upon blood and gore to shock the audience. I go for the psychological dramas like Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolf Man. Give me a story in which people fight against their own inner evil – Jekyll and Hyde, for example. The idea of being killed by a monster scares me less than half as much as the idea of becoming a monster, myself.

Sometimes when I look into a mirror, I see my face begin to change, somewhat like the Wolf Man. I hate mirrors and avoid looking at them. Occasionally when I have stayed in someone else’s house and had to get up in the night, I have been startled by what I thought was a burglar, only to discover that it was my own reflection in a mirror.

I watch horror movies as an adult in order to dispel the fear that haunted my childhood years.

The little orange stucco tract house on the corner of Westwood and Ocean in Culver City, California, was home to a menagerie of monsters. I remember the cockroaches that used to swarm out of the storm drain at night, but I was not afraid of them. The creaking and groaning of the pine-paneled walls terrified me. My older and smarter brother Steve later told me that we had an infestation of roof rats, but Mom never told me about the rats because she didn’t want to frighten me. I would have been less afraid if I had known about the rats, instead of being left to imagine all sorts of goblins inside the walls of my bedroom. Mom was always lying or withholding information, with the excuse that she did not want to frighten me. For example, I wanted to know how the speakers on our hi-fi worked, so I asked her if they were electrical. Mom said no, to avoid scaring me, even though she knew that they were electrical.

What frightened me the most was that my two brothers and two cousins, all of whom were boys and older than I was, used to turn on the TV and start watching a monster movie. One by one, they would leave the room, until I was sitting there all by myself, watching Godzilla or the Wasp Woman, or some other horror feature. I stayed glued to the chair, unable to leave until I saw the monster die. If I didn’t see the monster die on the television screen, it would remain alive in my mind. The one that frightened me the most was the Mummy. To this day, when I choose a sleeping bag, I never get a mummy bag.

One early morning I woke up to see a Martian metal robot on my bedroom floor. That is what Steve’s silver nylon sleeping bag looked like in the dim light of pre-dawn. Worse, Rick’s brown cotton mummy bag was also there beside the killer robot, two monsters lying where my brothers had tossed them when they came home from a camping trip. I stayed as still as possible, not daring to move lest I draw the attention of the mummy and the killer robot, until the morning light finally burst in and they became ordinary sleeping bags again.

I’m sure that my near-sightedness and the dim light had a great deal to do with what I saw that morning. My imagination did the rest.

In 1961 Mom took us to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History to see the King Tut exhibit. Egypt had released very few actual King Tut artifacts, but they did display a real mummy in a glass case, and I remember seeing one of Tut’s golden sandals. In spite of the monster movies, that exhibit did not frighten me. I wasn’t afraid of real, tangible things. I was afraid of the things that go bump in the night.

I know now that the specters that I see in the dark are symptoms of astigmatism, a condition in which the shape of the eyeball is flattened, so light will bounce around inside the eye and cause the person to see points of light in the darkness after turning off the lights. I used to talk about “brown clouds”, in an attempt to describe what I saw. It was like looking at a pot of boiling soup. And the high-pitched tones that I used to hear inside my ears were symptoms of tinnitus, a condition affecting the inner ear that can be caused by infection or by excess ear wax or fluid drainage.

Chapter Three, Death and near-death

I can explain most of the strange experiences of my childhood by referring to my poor eyesight, plus the roof rats.

However, I can offer no mundane explanation for Michael’s presence. He told me that Great Grandma was in Heaven. Mom’s paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Evans, died of colon cancer in 1958, when I was four years old. She was in her seventies. Mom told me that Grandma’s tumor was benign, so as not to frighten me. Gee, thanks, Mom! Not! Mom seemed to think that it was more important to avoid scaring me than it was for me to know my family’s true history, medical and otherwise.

~~~

I'm holding a pre-sale of signed copies of this book. If you are interested, please email me at tuffy777@gmail.com

Thank you so much!

~~~

PKD Robot Head Rebuilt

2011-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

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The PKD robot head was stolen a few years ago, or perhaps lost, hen it failed to turn up after an airline flight.

Now it has been rebuilt. However, it does not sound anything like Phil. That definitely is not Phil's voice.

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=3153

~~~

~~~

A quick note on domestic violence

2011-01-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

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Now that Anne Dick has spoken out in her memoir about Philip K. Dick, I feel the need to present Phil's defense, since he is not here to do so. Anne writes that Phil used to beat her, but she stayed with him because that was what the culture of her time and place encouraged.

Phil complained that he was afraid of his third wife Anne because she used to attack him physically, kicking him and punching him, and even shoving a lighted cigarette into his ear. Apparently, what set her off was his habit of flirting with other women. He also claimed that she threatened him with a loaded gun on more than one occasion, when he tried to leave her.

Violence is a two-way street, and it takes two to make a fight.

~~~

AKS book - review

2010-12-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

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Can't get enough of PKD? Try AKS book. A Kindred Spirit, by ej Morgan, will feed yur craving for irreality in fiction.

This fictional account of Philip K. Dick's life begins with the hit on his house in Marin County and ends with . . . well, I won't spoil it for you.

A must read for PKD fans.

http://blog.aksbook.com/

~~~

Quachi - a story from the ancient past

2010-12-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

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Please enjoy this story from my collection, Quachi and Other Stories and Poems. The book is available on Amazon.

Quachi
Note: This story was inspired by a documentary about the ancient monuments of Peru. The archaeologists could not understand why the people simply abandoned their great cities and religious centers. They offered several possible answers, and this story is my answer.

Father held his head high as he proudly led his family up the rocky path to the plateau where the sanctuary stood. All of them – his wife, three sons and three daughters – carried offerings for the nobles. Each year in the season of offering, they brought their gifts, and each year in the season they prayed for the Great Quachi to play his flute and grant them the gift of rain.

The rain must return. When it had rained, ten seasons past, the vicious torrent had torn long gouges into the earth with its claws. The farms of the high plain needed gentle rain to fill their canals. Father’s youngest son never had seen the rain.

On the shore stood cliffs filled with the shells of dead creatures that had suddenly found themselves lifted out of the sea by the uplifting of the earth. The family farm would soon be a dead shell, as well.

Father looked back now and then, to make certain that his family stayed together and maintained a respectful silence in this most holy of places. He worried about his youngest son, Tlati, who had let the llama bolt and run last year. That must not happen this time. They must see the Great Quachi.
#
Tlati led the llama colt by a fiber rope looped around its neck and tied around its nose, while his older brothers carried sacks of corn, melons and other fruits to offer to the Lords of the nation. They had walked this maze before, making the annual pilgrimage to the high plateau of Perqat Namu on the western edge of the Terraced Mountains and entering the packed dirt path between mud brick walls that rose twice as high as their heads. The path through the maze started out wide and open to the air, then narrowed as the walls closed in, finally coming to the part where they must walk single-file in the darkness under a thatch roof. It felt good to be walking, after waiting for two weeks in makeshift tents on the beach by the Great Ocean for their turn to approach the Lords. Other families still dotted the sand with their temporary encampments. They littered the sand with the detritus of daily life: fish bones, potsherds, corn husks, broken toys, scraps of discarded clothing and such. The beach stunk of dead fish and cooking fires.

Every year they offered their corn to the Lord of the Fields, their melons to the Lord of the Gardens, and so forth, finally offering one young llama of perfect conformation and without blemish to the Lord of Livestock. The llama must be less than one year old and raised in their house as a member of the family. Every year they were turned back without having seen the Great Quachi at the center of the maze, their offerings having fallen short of perfection. This was Tlati’s second year of pilgrimage, but he knew of years before from the stories that his three older brothers told.
#
Father never told stories. He led them through the maze in silence, maintaining an air of authority over his family, turning around to shush them with a stern look if they dared to whisper in this most holy of shrines. His two oldest boys carried the gifts of corn and melons. His youngest son, as was the custom, led the llama colt. Behind the line of men came the women, their mother and three sisters, carrying household goods to offer to the Lords: hand-woven textiles of the finest wool and most precious colors, clay pots filled with delicacies of bean curd and llama stew, rough gemstones and small common stones carved with blessings and prayers.

The family hoped, with these offerings, to reach the center of the maze and petition the Great Quachi for the gift of rain. Their canals had been running dry too soon, their fields scorching under the harsh sun, their crops shriveling and yielding fewer and smaller fruits each season. Each year they dug the canals anew to better carry the scant rainfall. Each year they brought the best of their produce, their finest handicrafts and their most perfect young llama as offerings to seek admittance that they might implore the Great Quachi to play his flute and, in so doing, to cause the sky to yield up rain. Each year they were turned back, disappointed but determined to try again next year, when the season of pilgrimage came around again.
#
Dust swirled around Tlati’s bare feet with each step he took. The llama, raised in their own house as a member of their family, walked by his side like a little brother, making the rope seem superfluous. He kept a tight grip on his end of the rope, nevertheless, remembering last year when the llama had balked. This llama would also try to run away, Father had warned him. They always do. Tlati resolved in his heart that he would not disappoint Father again. They must see the Great Quachi. They must have rain.
#
They walked in solemn procession down the path, which turned left and then right, then right again, winding in ever tighter spirals as the walls gradually closed in, making the path narrower at each turn. In each of their minds, the same thoughts ran through, the same words they had spoken every night around the cooking fire: “We must have water, we must have rain. The Great Quachi must play his flute and bring the rain.” Here and there a tapestry of red, green, yellow and black hung from the mud brick wall, illuminated by a candle set into a niche on the opposite wall. Each tapestry bore the insignia of rulership over the people and the land on its top half, and the seal of a Lord near the fringed bottom. When they passed under the edge of the thatch roof, walking single-file, they quickened their pace in the excitement of knowing that they were near to the offices. The thatch roof darkened their path, to impress upon them the brightness of the light in the offices of the Lords. Each Lord had his own alcove, a small room open to the sky, that one person might enter through an opening in the side of the tunnel, for now the roofed walls felt more like an underground tunnel leading into ever deeper darkness than a path leading to the high sanctuary of the gods.
In the first alcove sat the Lord of Stones, dressed in feathers and seated at a stone table. The wall behind him displayed a painted scene of women gathering stones from the fields around their mud house. Mother watched as Tlati’s youngest sister, Chalca, placed a cloth bundle on the stone table and pulled its corners apart, displaying her offering of a dozen stones, some precious and therefore not engraved, others common and therefore having prayers and blessings scratched and painted into their flat sides. Stones of violet, red and green sparkled in the sunlight. Mother moved her lips in silent prayer to be allowed to go forward and walk that much closer to the Caller Down of the Rain. The official nodded, the top feathers of his headdress nearly touching Chalca’s head, then lifted his head and looked to one side. It was the side of the path leading to the next official, so their first offering had been accepted.

The children found it unbearable that nobody spoke to them and that they must not speak. They suspected that their parents also felt ready to burst with speech, and that they would speak long and loud on the way home, when at last they were turned away and forced to leave the holy place. They always did.

The next sister offered a pot of llama stew to the Lord of Kitchens, and he must have savored the aroma, for he lingered over the pot for several minutes, mumbling to himself, before he finally nodded and sent the family on to the next office.

Each offering left the family group waiting outside the office while one of them offered the best they had. Each offering that a Lord accepted gained them access to the next Lord, where another one would make the next offering. Mama’s bean curd won the Lord’s blessing and a smile of delight at its delicate aroma.

Next came the brothers. Father watched them with the silent prayer upon his lips, we must have water, we must have rain. The melons were small but sweet, the corn stunted but edible. The Lords accepted those offerings from Tlati’s brothers, but they did not seem well pleased.

The family walked deeper into the narrowing maze, their sense of anticipation growing with each step they took. Tlati’s apprehension grew, for he knew that the last offering must be his, to hand his young brother llama over to the Lord of Livestock. Father made his offering of a bundle of firewood, cut to the proper dimensions and tied together with cords made of dried vines. The Lord of Fire cut the cords and inspected each piece separately for the quality of the wood and the size and shape. It seemed to take forever, but at last the Lord nodded and sent the family on to the next office.

Finally, they came to the next but last office, the Lord of Livestock. They had spent most of the day, beginning at first light, making their progress through the maze to this point near the center. The thatch roof in this end of the tunnel let in the dappled sunlight of late afternoon through a looser weave than in the halls outside the offices of the lesser Lords. The walls stood somewhat farther apart, allowing two adults to stand side by side outside the alcove where the last Lord but one awaited their offering of a fine young llama. Father and Mother watched from the doorway, while the children jockeyed for position behind them, trying to see around them and into the office.
#
Tlati stepped into the alcove, giving the rope a tug to encourage the llama to come along. The llama must have smelled the blood, for it balked, rearing back and dragging the boy backwards and pulling him off of his feet. Tlati fell to the ground and had the breath knocked out of him, but still he held tightly to the rope. His family watched with concern but did not move, for it was forbidden to help. Tlati must perform this task himself. Regaining his feet, he spoke softly to the llama colt and stroked its neck, reassuring the frightened animal that all was well. He felt like a traitor, for he knew what lay ahead, but the family’s need was great and this was the only way to meet their need.

He rubbed his brother llama behind its ears and whispered soothing words of affection, promising food and all other good things that a llama might want. This colt had slept in his own bed and eaten out of his own hand. It trusted him as if he were its own brother. So, with a little coaxing, Tlati convinced the llama colt to enter the office.

The heavy-set, bronze-skinned Lord of Livestock, dressed only in a leather apron, reached out a huge hand and grabbed the llama by the neck. With his other hand, he flashed a black obsidian knife of exquisite sharpness and slit the llama’s throat, sending a shower of blood over himself and Tlati.

The boy nearly fainted in horror, even though this was his second time and he had known what to expect. He watched the Lord carefully to see which way he would nod his head. Would this be the time when they were finally allowed to beseech the Great Quachi for life-giving rain? Or would they once again be turned away to struggle through another year of drought? He had heard his father and mother whispering about it in the wee hours of the night, when they thought he was asleep. They could not survive another dry year. If the Great Quachi did not play his flute and bring forth the return of the rain, then the people must move away or die. These two choices were all that lay before them.

For himself, Tlati could not bear to lose another beloved pet. He did not mind the hardship, the lack of water and the shortage of food. Working in the fields gave him pleasure, and he took pride in the calluses on his young hands. But he swore that he would never again watch the murder of a pet that he had raised with his own hands in his own house. The Great Quachi must bring rain.

The Lord inspected the corpse of the young llama, running his hands through its sleek, well-groomed wool, pinching its hindquarters to check the depth and tenderness of the muscles, bending its legs to examine their delicate bone structure. He began to turn his head, and it was the wrong way.
Tlati ran out of the alcove into the midst of his family, and he kept on running. His brother Texco tried to grab him, but he ducked and sped away toward the center of the maze, toward the Great Quachi, Lord of the Sky.
#
Father ran after his youngest son, afraid to believe that Tlati was committing this great sacrilege. Nobody approached the Great Quachi without permission. Surely the boy had turned the wrong way in error, meaning to run out of the maze and begin the long journey home. Mother and the children followed, walking slowly and seeming dazed. Some twenty or thirty feet down the path, they stood at the entrance to the central office, the shrine of the Great Quachi, and they watched their youngest son approach the greatest Lord of them all.
#
The thatch roof ended and the walls opened into the central chamber. In the center of the circular office sat a little man on a round stone platform. Shriveled and old, the Great Quachi had deeply wrinkled skin and a round bald head that seemed too big for his body. His chin lay upon his chest; he was either sleeping or deep in thought.

Tlati stopped a few feet away from the Lord and shouted, “Quachi! Great Quachi, you must help us!”

The family watched in horror, but also relief, as the youngest boy delivered their prayer to the Caller Down of the Rain.

The shriveled old man raised his head and blinked repeatedly as if the sunlight were too powerful for his old eyes.

“You must play your flute and bring the rain,” Tlati implored. “The land is dried up, the crops are failing and the people are suffering. Please bring back the rain!”

The old man spoke slowly, as if it were a great effort to push out the words. “You want,” he said, and gasped for breath. “Rain?”

“Yes. That is why the people come here every year, just after the harvest, to beg the Great Lord of the Sky for rain to water our crops and bring us abundance once more.”

The old man bent his head and sighed, but he did not speak.

Tlati urged, “We need your help. Our fields are parched and our livestock thirsty. We must have rain.”

“So sorry,” Quachi said. “The sky contains no rain for my flute to call down.”

“But you are the Lord! You may command it!”

Tlati had expected some sort of guards, or even his own brothers, to come and fetch him from this place. Apparently there were no guards. He did not have permission to enter, but his family was also forbidden to come into the presence of the Great Quachi. They waited outside the doorway, peering in but not daring to set foot inside.

“The sky,” the Lord said slowly and painfully, “has no rain to give.”

“None at all?”

“None.”

“Then what shall we do?” the boy implored,

“Go. Find a new land where the sky gives rain freely and in abundance.” The words came out slowly and with long pauses in between, but the Lord said them with authority and the boy obeyed.

Tlati bowed before the Lord, begged his forgiveness for this intrusion and walked slowly backwards until he was outside the central office and in the hallway with his family.
#
The family walked home in silence. His brothers did not tell their usual stories, having no stories as great as this one to tell. Tlati felt the need to consider the story in his heart, so he did not tell it for many years after the family had packed up their meager possessions and faded away into the forest, far from the desiccated fields of their former home, far from the Lord of Hopelessness.
* * *

A great book about gnosticism and such

2010-12-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

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I just got this email about great book of interviews covering gnosticism and such!

For several years, Miguel Conner has engaged the most prominent writers and scholars on Gnosticism and early Christianity on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio. These interviews with 13 leading scholars represent one of the best ways to get to know ancient Gnosticism, the movement that has inspired Dan Brown, Philip Pullman, Philip K. Dick and The Matrix movies. Read what the best minds have to say about the Gnostic sects, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, Mary Magdalene, heresy, the origins of Gnosticism, and the original teachings of Jesus.

Purchase through Amazon.com
Purchase Kindle version through Amazon.com

Elaine Pagels • Marvin Meyer • Bart Ehrman • Bruce Chilton • Stevan Davies • David Fideler • Birger Pearson • John Turner • Einar Thomassen • Jason BeDuhn • Karen King • Jane Schaberg • April DeConick

"a terrific and approachable read. It's a current snapshot of academic readings in Gnosticism without requiring a PhD. to follow it (a common enough criticism for those encountering these ideas for the first time). Certainly the most readable book on the subject to come out this year, and top of the Christmas list for your local Gnostic."
Jordan Stratford

“Gets at the Gnostics as they were, not as many people today would like them to be.”
Bruce Chilton, author of The Way of Jesus and Rabbi Paul

“Aeon Byte is one of the most exciting and far-seeing programs in the world of Webcasting.”
Richard Smoley, author of Forbidden Faith, The Dice Game of Shiva, and Inner Christianity

“A great help to all who possess an interest in and/or devotion to the Gnostic tradition. Warmly recommended!”
Stephan Hoeller, author of Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing and Jung and the Lost Gospels

“An invaluable resource for those interested in the history and continuing relevance of Gnosticism.”
Sean Martin, author of The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics, The Cathars, and The Knights Templar

“Sophia and her aeonic friends should be delighted.”
Marvin Meyer, author of The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, The Gospels of Mary

“You are holding in your hands a Gnostic gem, a book that contains the rich wisdom of thirteen world-renowned scholars who study Gnosticism and the classical world.”
April D. DeConick, author of The Thirteenth Apostle

--
Bardic Press
http://www.bardic-press.com

~~~

~~~

PKD memoir reviewed

2010-12-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

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Firebright has been reviewed at sfbook dot com:

http://sfbook.com/remembering-firebright.htm

~~~

Excerpt from the review:

Much of the writing that concerns PKD's visions, hallucinations or beliefs are told without prejudice or judgement, it's left up to the reader to decide what they believe he really saw and felt.

I am also staggered to see just how many very famous people PKD knew, which include the great scifi authors Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, KW Jeter (who wrote a sequel to Bladerunner) and even a phone call from the late John Lennon.

Remembering Firebright is a bittersweet journey told in an raw, honest and heartfelt way, a must for any PKD fan.

~~~

Mnemosyne - memory

2010-12-06T16:21:00.000-08:00

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In Greek myth. Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory and the mother of the Muses*. She resided over a pool in Hades where dead souls could drink and recover their memories of life in some place other than Earth - some would call it Paradise or the Elysian Fields.

Most dead souls were supposed to drink from the river Lethe in order to forget their earthly sorrows, so they would not remember their past lives when they reincarnated.

Initiates into the Orphic mysteries were encouraged to drink from the pool of remembering, without drinking from the river of forgetfulness. In that way, they could remember all their past lives, including their life in Paradise or the Elysian fields.

Sometimes I think that I should have drunk from the river of forgetfulness. I have distinct memories of playing in a room filled with white light, waiting to be born into this life. I did not want to choose the family that Grandfather showed us on the screen, and neither did any of my five companions, but Grandfather refused to let any of us get born until one of us chose that family.

Grandfather looked like the Bible illustrations of Moses - tall, white hair and long beard, wearing a white robe and carrying a walking stick. He spent most of his time working in the garden just outside our play room.

We were all children, about 6 years old, and although we had fun in the play room, we all wanted to get born.

~~~

* The nine Muses were the children of Mnemosyne and Zeus. Three of them, the best known Muses, were those who spun the thread of life (Clotho), measured that thread (Lachesis) and cut the thread (Atropos).

~~~

Three books to review - where to start?

2010-12-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

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Three books to review - where to start?

Beyond Vision by Merlin Spinoza

The Guardians by Bob Ryan

A Kindred Spirit by ej Morgan

Sadly, Merlin Spinoza passed away last April, so I guess he won't mind if I move his book to the bottom of the list. It is an amazing tale of alternate worlds, but it can wait.

I haven't actually opened Bob Ryan's book, a paranormal murder mystery, although I do very much look forward to reading it.

So let's start with ej Morgan's book, A Kindred Spirit. I've read a few pages, and it is a page turner, but life keeps interfering with art. So here's some info from the author's blog, plus a link to the blog:

AKS is short for A Kindred Spirit, a new novel. "What's it about?" you ask. Now famous "sci-Fi" writer Philip K Dick is dead, but he's not done. Join Phil (the Prince of Pulp), his long-dead "cross-bonded" cohort Bishop James Pike, and young investigative reporter Niki Perceval on a journey through time and space to discover what's really real.

http://blog.aksbook.com/

~~~

Relativity and epicycles - plasma physics and the electro-magnetic universe

2010-11-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

`
The complex sets of equations employed in metric tensors and Lorentzian transformations remind me of the epicycles that mathematicians used to calculate in an attempt to explain the movements of the planets while maintaining an Earth-centered model of the universe.

An oversimplified explanation of metric tensors is that they explain the different experiences of space-time between observers who are traveling at different velocities, assuming that at least one of them is moving at a velocity that is closer to the speed of light than what we experience inside Earth's gravity well.

It seems to me that we need a simpler model of space-time, just as the medieval astronomers needed a simpler model of the solar system.

The model that appeals most to me is electro-magnetic in nature. When gravity is removed from the equations, and replaced with electro-magnetism, it becomes possible to unify the field theories and achieve a much simpler model of space-time than those which employ strings and ten or eleven dimensions. This might be the beginning of the "theory of everything".

Edward Leedskalnin, who built the Coral Castle in Florida, said that he had discovered that gravity was electro-magnetic in nature. Perhaps that is how he managed to move huge blocks of stone with no outside help. He also claimed that he had discovered the secret of the Egyptian pyramid-builders. Perhaps they had found a way to align the magnetic dipoles inside huge stones, using magnetic repulsion to make them light enough to move into place.

In any case, the theory that I am developing involves four kinds of matter. You probably have heard of matter and anti-matter, but I postulate two additional kinds of matter, for a total of four, which I denote ++, --, +- and -+, like the four squares on a Cartesian plane. If matter (++) and anti-matter (--) meet, they mutually annihilate. However, if matter (++) or anti-matter (--) meets one of the other two types, +- or -+, they only partially annihilate, releasing energy without total destruction of either type of matter.

These other two types of matter, in my model, consist of plasma, the fourth state of matter. Most of us are familiar with the three states of matter, as illustrated by water, which is a solid when frozen, a liquid when melted and a gas when evaporated. The fourth state, plasma, exists when the molecules are ripped apart, so you no longer have water, but you have a gas-like cloud of ionized atoms. The molecules have been ripped apart, leaving their constituent atoms, and the electrons have been removed from the nuclei, so the plasma is ionized. The nuclei have a positive charge, while the electrons have a negative charge.

We can see a plasma in a neon sign or a fluorescent light bulb. Plasmas are common throughout the universe, even in what we regard as "empty" space.

When an electrical current runs through a plasma, matter can form. In fact, it forms in such a way that it can easily explain why some galaxies (such as our own Milky Way) are spiral discs. If they were formed by the force of gravity, then all the galaxies ought to be spherical, not flattened.

More later - my head hurts.

8-)

~~~~~~~~

Adversary

2010-11-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

`
A postscript to the "Pink Light" experience:

Satan is the god of this world, the Adversary who accuses us of all our sin. He would convict us if he could, but Satan is not our judge. He is only the prosecuting attorney.

Remember that the Devil has no real power over you. He is the Father of Lies.

Lucifer, Apollyon, the Day Star, Son of the Morning, Satan or the Devil under any name is the Enemy.

So whenever you encounter anything spiritual, ask yourself whether it is sent from God or the "other guy".

The Serpent in the Garden of Eden was beautiful, but it was also deceptive. It allowed the Devil to enter into it. The Devil, that Old Serpent, can appear as an Angel of Light, shining and beautiful.

So beware!

~~~

Why I distrust the pink light

2010-11-17T11:44:00.000-08:00

`
My husband Philip K. Dick thought that God had sent the pink light experience to help him fight off demonic attacks, but I am not so certain.

Satan, Lucifer, the Devil himself is an angel of light. He is referred to as the Day Star - not the Morning Star, as some mistranslations have it, but the Day Star. (The Morning Star is Venus, and the Day Star is Mars.)

So the experience of a pink light shining on the bedroom wall and the later experience of a tiny ball of blue light dancing around the room seem suspicious to my mind.

We tend to expect the Devil to appear as an ugly creature with horns, hooves and a tail, but he is the most beautiful of all the angels, the crowning cherub in the Garden on Eden.

Many secret societies worship the Greek god Apollo, which is also Lucifer. The Shining Apollo, god of music, mathematics, reason and prophecy, is Lucifer under another name. He is a false god. Apollo is the most handsome of gods, as handsome as Adonis whom Venus loved.

I explore these and other ideas in my book 2012 and Beyond: Ancient Secrets and Mysteries, available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

~~~

Underground bunkers

2010-11-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

`
Jesse Ventura's "Conspiracy Theory" program on the Tru TV cable channel ran an installment on underground bunkers, which are supposedly designed to house the elite during the destruction caused by a huge solar flare predicted to scorch the Earth in 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWWIDT910I

There probably will be some kind of global disaster, either real or staged, in or around 2012. However, those bunkers are not what you think they are. They are not for the elite; they are for us.

We will pound on the doors, begging, pleading, demanding to be let in. And they will let us in but they will never let us out.

Read Philip K. Dick's novel The Penultimate Truth.

You shall know that truth, and the truth will set you free.

~~~

Firebright excerpt

2010-11-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

`
Phil was just getting over his shoulder surgery, when our son had to have surgery for an inguinal hernia. I had taken the baby to our family doctor in July because I observed strange symptoms when I changed his diapers, but the doctor told me that I wasn’t cleaning him well enough. I knew that it had to be something more, but I thought that it could wait. I never said anything to Phil, but I did plan to go back to the doctor and ask him to check more carefully. One morning in September, Phil was taking one of his frequent naps while I cooked breakfast. Christopher was still in his crib, babbling happily while he played with his toys. Phil got out of bed and walked down the hall, calling to me to get the doctor. At first I thought that Phil needed medical help, but then he told me that our baby had an inguinal hernia and was in danger of dying if it strangulated. He looked as if he were in a hypnotic trance. Now, Phil did not change diapers, and I had not discussed this with him, but he said that he had heard our son telling him about the hernia. Christopher knew a few words, such as “Dada” and “Mama”, but he was only fourteen months old and couldn’t possibly have said anything about an inguinal hernia.

The family doctor referred us to a specialist who said that the baby could have died if we had allowed him to cry, as many parents do when they want their babies to start sleeping through the night and skipping the two o’clock feeding. The stress and muscle contractions of crying and screaming could cause the hernia to strangulate, cutting off the blood flow and killing him. We had tried to ignore the baby’s crying in the middle of the night, but we couldn’t stand it. We had shared an intuition that this baby must not be allowed to cry, even if it meant spoiling him and losing sleep, ourselves. The surgeon repaired the hernia and removed two hydrocoels, a type of liquid-filled cyst. When Phil wrote about this, he demonstrated a total lack of knowledge by stating, “it popped the hydroseal”. Yet when he had told me to call the doctor, he had everything right.

Shortly after our son’s surgery, the electronic equipment was removed from the apartment next door and two young men moved in. Phil experienced his final “pink light” vision shortly before then. First he saw the cover of a classical music album appear on the bedroom wall, framed by a border of pink light. Then he saw a huge cat’s paw rake its claws across the bedroom wall, drawing a musical score in pink light across the album cover. He couldn’t read the title or composer of the music, but the conductor’s name was Herbert Von Karyan. Phil haunted the record store until he found an album with that cover, and he brought it home and listened to it for hours on end. It was a Schubert symphony, but I don’t remember which one. He insisted that the instrumental music (it had no vocals) contained some kind of code.

You can read more when you purchase my book Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright
through the link to my Amazon store on the right or from Barnes & Noble, as well as other online stores.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

God spoke over the bedside radio

2010-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

What we were supposed to discuss in the second segment of Darkness Radio, when I got bumped for a last-minute ghost story, was the voice of God, like the sound of thunder or maybe like the voice of Darth Vader, speaking on the bedside radio.

Phil was lying in bed one afternoon, when he heard the voice of God telling him that his infant son had a hernia and needed immediate medical attention. Guess what? God was right.

Learn more in my memoir, Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright.

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other web sites, and easy to order through brick and mortar book stores, if they don't happen to have it in stock.

~~~

Encounter with ambush radio

2010-11-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

`
If you caught the heavily edited podcast, you did not hear what happened live on KTLK, when I did the host a favor and filled in for a guest who had canceled at the last minute. It does sound much better than what happened on the live show, when I was constantly interrupted and sidetracked onto tangents. Most importantly, they edited out the little speech by the host in which he said that he had to let me go because I was not as organized as I had been in the pre-interview. Please note that there was no pre-interview. There was only a request for me to come on in the place of a guest who had canceled. No pre-interview.

You learn something new every day, and the learning experience is not always pleasant.

Several days ago, I filled out a form on a web site where the media request experts.

Monday afternoon a radio talk show host asked me at the last minute to fill in tonight for a guest who canceled. He sounded nice, so I said yes.

But almost as soon as the interview began, he got confrontational, and soon he started attacking me. I did my best to remain calm and sweet, and to agree with him wherever possible.

He led me way off track with questions that did not relate to what I put on the web site form, and then he shut me down and told the audience that I had been more coherent in the pre-interview. What pre-interview? There was no pre-interview.

I'm shaking and upset. I'm going to bed.

At least he put in a plug for my book, and he let me give the url for this blog.

~~~

Is There Life After Death?

2010-10-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Interview with Anthony Peake, author of Cheating the Ferryman, on BBC radio.

An alternative theory to reincarnation, not involving Heaven, but more about alternate worlds.

The interview is available for the next six days,

http://www.anthonypeake.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1515&sid=a5b07c01dc0548eaeb211eb2a6e48ba5

Fascinating discussion.

~~~

Update:

It is now up on the iPlayer:
http://www.facebook.com/l/8628e;www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00bn5gm/Billy_Butler_25_10_2010/

~~~

He heard the voice of God on the bedside radio

2010-10-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

~

In March 1974, Philip K. Dick (Bladderunner) began hearing the voice of God on his bedside radio.

But the story begins back in 1970, when he received a telephone call from Dr. Timothy Leary, the LSD guru whom President Richard Nixon called "the most dangerous man in America".

Learn how mysterious people who claimed to belong to a super secret government organization terrorized the science fiction author until he left the country, only to return with no money but a head full of ideas for his next novel, A Scanner Darkly.

Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright
available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online book stores.

Firebright on Amazon

~~~

Learn more on my other blog:

http://pkdmemoir.blogspot.com/

~~~

Myth and magic

2010-10-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

For thousands of years, people have worshiped the planets Venus and Mars, often without knowing it. Velikovsky had a piece of the truth, as does Richard C. Hoagland.

In ancient times, people were terrified of the planet Mars. Why? The planet Venus sometimes passed close to the Earth, but Mars did so more often and with more devastating effects.

Ancient ritualistic magic and blood sacrifice were feeble attempts to stop Mars from passing close to Earth and causing devastating floods, fires and earthquakes. The long day of Joshua was probably due to a close pass by Mars, as described by Chuck Missler.

Many modern occult practices go back to the dimly seen ancient past, when powerful leaders took advantage of the superstitions of the masses. Certainly, when the Aztecs ripped out the hearts of their victims, that sacrifice could not stop Mars or Venus from coming near to Earth, but it worked because those planets had already settled into their present orbits. The temple prostitutes in ancient Sumer were not serving the gods, but rather enriching the warlords.

But in ancient Sumer, there was a real possibility that one of those rogue planets would come close to Earth.

An awesome force must have knocked those planets out of their proper orbits, and they have only recently settled down into their present places in the sky.

Mars must once have been a moon of a much larger planet, a planet that exploded and formed the asteroid belt plus a few other fragments. Some of those fragments probably got caught up in Jupiter's gravity, while others continued moving outward to form Pluto and the other planetoids and comets in the far distant reaches of our solar system.

Other fragments must have hurtled toward the inner solar system, giving Earth the Moon, while others fell into the sun and were vaporized. The planet Mercury might be a large fragment that managed to escape destruction.

What was life like for the survivors of that ancient catastrophe? In my novel Origins, Part One: Thor's Hammer, I explore the lives of people who take refuge on the prison planet Earth after their home planet is destroyed in an interplanetary war.

Available on Amazon.

~~~

What if Richard Hoagland is right? What if we are the Martians?

2010-10-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

What if we are the Martians?

What if Mars was once a moon of a larger planet, a planet that exploded and formed the asteroid belt?

What if the survivors of that ancient catastrophe took refuge on Earth?

Read my novel Origins Part One: Thor's Hammer, which explores what life must have been like for our ancient ancestors, if Richard Hoagland was right.

http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Part-One-Revised-Expanded/dp/1440459673/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286937992&sr=1-10

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two PKD documents on eBay

2010-10-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

Two documents, packaged together.

Two original documents -- Philip K Dick's handwritten note assigning half of the royalties from his novel A Scanner Darkly to me shortly before our marriage in 1973, and our marriage certificate.

These documents refer to me by my maiden name, Leslie Ann Busby.

The note is handwritten by Phil on a folded sheet of typing paper. The marriage certificate is slightly larger than half a sheet of typing paper.

The marriage certificate is signed by the minister and two witnesses: my father and one of our neighbors on Quartz Lane in Fullerton.

The sale of these documents will help me keep my home during these hard times.

You can find some of my books on Amazon.

~~ Tessa Busby Dick
~~~

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180571166015&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180571166015&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

~~~

Excerpt from Firebright

2010-09-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

Chapter 2, The Prelude

After about than 35 years, I’ve finally put together some of the pieces of a puzzle that I once thought unsolvable. Why would some vast conspiracy, some ultra-secret organization with international resources, focus their efforts on a little known science fiction writer who was so poverty-stricken that he was forced to apply for government aid to feed his small child? This question occurred to Phil and others many times, but no answer seemed forthcoming. Recently, however, I came across information about Dr. Timothy Leary, with whom Phil had a passing acquaintance.
Dr. Leary spoke to Phil by telephone in 1969, several months before Leary’s conviction for possession of marijuana. President Nixon once called him “the most dangerous man in America”, due to his advocacy for the use of LSD and other psychotropic drugs. When he escaped from prison in 1970, all the resources of the federal government were marshaled to track him down. So that explains why Phil was under surveillance in 1971. He had come to the attention for the authorities because they wanted to put a stop to Leary’s call to “tune in, turn on and drop out”.
Timothy Leary, once the golden child at Harvard University for his work in personality profiling, had become a public enemy, considered more dangerous than the worst mob boss. Phil, in turn, had become a public enemy by association.
Phil’s wife Nancy was hospitalized for an extended period, and the royalties coming in from his books slowed to a trickle and then dried up, so he applied for state aid to ensure that his daughter Isa would have food and medical care. Phil began to notice that cars seemed to be following him when he drove to the grocery store. He wrote it off as paranoia, at first.
When Nancy came home, she seemed distant. Eventually, she left him for a neighbor who happened to be a member of the Black Panthers. To say the least, those circumstances did nothing to assuage Phil’s feelings of persecution. Left alone in a three-bedroom house, Phil began taking in roommates to relieve his feelings of loneliness and help to pay the bills. Gradually, without his noticing it at first, the little tract house in San Rafael, California, became known as a party house and a crash pad. People would come to visit, drink and take drugs, eat Phil’s food and fall asleep on the couch and the floor. Some of those people he knew, and others he did not. Some told him that the police suspected him of being a drug dealer, and that it was bad for his reputation to allow teenagers to hang around. He began dating a 19-year-old girl, and her friends naturally gravitated toward his house.
Most of these people did not read and had no idea what Phil did for a living. They were kids who liked to party, and his house was open to them.
All of these circumstances looked suspicious to any authorities who might notice him. And since he had already come to their attention because of his contact with Timothy Leary, they did notice him.

~~~

Believe it or not . . .

2010-09-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

I've always been fascinated by the little bits of ancient history that you do not find in the textbooks, so I put together the bits and pieces of the past, pointing to the one truth that I know:

Whether you and I believe it or not, certain members of the wealthy and powerful elite do believe that they are descended from the gods.

2012 and Beyond:: Ancient Secrets and Mysteries
~~~

Epinions - my reviews of products and services

2010-09-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

I've been reviewing products and services at Epinions for about ten years, and it's a great way to earn a little honest money. Please use the link below to read some of my reviews.

You can earn a little, too, by writing reviews of about 600 words about the things that you already have around the house. That includes books and movies. It won't make the house payment, but it will give you pocket money. And you get paid the same for saying that a product is no good, as you would for saying that it's great.

They do not have a referral program, so I do not get anything if you join. However, my income will be boosted a little bit if you read some of my reviews.

Thank you so much!

http://www1.epinions.com/user-busby777

http://www1.epinions.com/user-busby777

~~~

PKD memorabilia for sale

2010-09-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

These items are now going up on eBay, along with other memorabilia.

First item on eBay, artist's sketch:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180570327057&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180570327057&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

I really need the $, to keep my utilities on and keep my house. I have nowhere to go, and no car to take me there. I will consider all serious offers.

You can bid on any of these items by contacting me by email -

tuffy777 @ gmail.com

Here's an image of Philip K. Dick's wristwatch, the one that he wore to the convention in Metz, France. It works, but it does need a new battery.

Please see the additional posts below for more items.

Thank you so much!

~~ Tessa Dick
~~~

many thanks!

2010-09-24T20:09:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Henry and Lesley, my water bill is covered. Thank you so much!
But there's still the pesky house payment coming up on the first of October.
~~~

Help!

2010-09-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

If anybody wants to be an angel and help me, my immediate goal is to scrape up $100 by Monday, to keep my water service turned on.

You can email me or send Paypal at

tuffy777@gmail.com

I will keep track of any contributions and pay them all back as soon as I get on my feet.

Thank you so much!

Philip K. Dick original handwritten document

2010-09-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

I have lost almost everything, and now I am losing the last of it. In order to stay in my home a couple months longer, I am selling everything that I have left. This handwritten document was Phil's way of making sure that I had my fair share of A Scanner Darkly, if anything happened to him. Phil wrote it by hand on a folded sheet of typing paper, shortly before we got married and I changed my name to Tessa Busby Dick.

It hurts me to sell this, but I am desperate, and it will not put food on the table or pay the rent.

Auction ends October 5, 2010. Minimum: $900.

~~~

Signed document - Philip K. Dick - assignment

2010-09-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Since this document is no longer of any use to me, and I'm about to be kicked out on to the street, it is for sale to the highest bidder. Minimum: $600. It is the original assignment of royalties, with my husband Philip K. Dick's signature. It relates to the novel A Scanner Darkly and the UBIK screenplay.

Auction ends October 5, 2010.

~~~

Marriage certificate for sale

2010-09-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Marriage certificate of Leslie Ann Busby (me) and Philip K. Dick.

The original is for sale, if somebody bids high enough. (Hint: My house payment is $365.)

Auction ends October 5, 2010.

Even a man who is pure in heart - movie review, The Wolf Man (1941)

2010-09-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, a VHS tape of The Wolf Man (1941) came into my hands, so of course I had to watch it. Several times. How could I pass up the chance to see Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Raines and Ralph Bellamy working together? Not to mention some beautiful ladies, plus the incomparable Bela Lugosi and Maria Ouspenskaya!

The werewolf story that used to strike terror into me when I was a child still terrifies me, but in a different way. I've come to see it as a morality tale. The true horror lies in the wolf man's inner struggle with his own conscience.

The black-and-white cinematography is so masterful that I barely noticed it until the third viewing, when I was consciously looking at it for the purposes of my review. The same principle applies to the music, which is seamlessly concordant with the story.

Please take a minute and read my review at Epinions:

Even a man who is pure in heart

http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1023873/content_525201018500

Thank you so much!

~~~

Redstone - book review in a hurry

2010-09-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

When I saw this title, Redstone, my first thought was rockets. Nope. The topic of this book is not science and not even science fiction, but it is a tale full of wonder. It's about a lost Indian tribe (Native American, that is), and an adventurer who is befriended by a cougar named Kitten.

No young swashbuckler, our hero is an old man who has lost his job, his wife and his health. He decides to take matters into his own hands, by the tail or whatever cliche you prefer, and he finds a hidden valley where his life begins anew.

A must read!

Redstone, by George Wright

http://www.secondwindpublishing.com/Redstone.html

~~~

Book review - I Think I Am Philip K. Dick, by Laurence A. Rickels

2010-09-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have mixed feelings about this book, but I do recommend it for those with a deep interest in the work of Philip K. Dick.

Please follow the link to read my book review - I Think I Am Philip K. Dick, by Laurence A. Rickels

Epinions

http://www99.epinions.com/review/Book_I_Think_I_Am_Philip_K_Dick_Laurence_A_Rickels/content_524323360388

~~~

New cover for Firebright

2010-07-31T09:48:00.000-07:00

Firebright has a new cover, thanks to Nick Buchanan. He's a real wizard with images!

~~~

Dr Steven Greer and Hon. Paul Hellyer Discuss ET/UFO Disclosure

2010-07-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I don't believe that disclosure will ever happen, but this discussion is very interesting.

~~~

I Think I am Philip K. Dick - book review

2010-07-19T17:33:00.000-07:00

A most interesting book came to me in the mail, along with a request to review it:

I Think I am Philip K. Dick
by Laurence A. Rickels

I looked forward to reading this book, but now I am sorry that I accepted a review copy from the publisher. I am forced to give it a mostly negative review.

Disclaimer: I must admit some bias, since I married Philip K. Dick and spent ten years with him (until his untimely death in 1982). However, time and distance have allowed me to take a more objective stance toward the man and his work. I no longer mourn his passing; I celebrate my own life and my living relatives.

Philip K. Dick was perhaps the greatest science fiction writer of the 20th century, and most critics consider his novels the work of a genius, despite their flaws. Struggling under the pressure of finances and deadlines, Philip K. Dick produced more than 35 novels and 150 short stories in his career, which was cut short when he suddenly died of a stroke at the age of 53. Better known authors, including Isaac Asimov (I, Robot, The Foundation) and Robert A. Heinlein (The Puppet Masters, Starship Troopers), admired Dick's work and considered it superior to their own.

Despite the title, this book really is not about Philip K. Dick. It is about the author, Laurence A. Rickels.

Moreover, he often writes entire paragraphs that say nothing, including sentences with internal contradictions. And he employs seven-syllable words and mile-long sentences to accomplish those feats.

For example, from the Introduction, which he calls "Introspection":

"On second thought, however, I recall Schreber's 'basic' notion of tested souls (a notion, in other words, of unpurified, unredeemed ghosts), which, among many other moments in Schreber's delusional system and alongside Freud's analysis of the anxieties involved in being tested, seem to give funereal foundation to the connection between Benjamin and Freud."

Note: The above quotation is one single sentence.

Academic work

Although not strictly an academic thesis, this book is an academic work by a professor, published by a university press. It covers most of Philip K. Dick's novels, at least in terms of chapter titles, but Rickels is primarily concerned with validating his own work through Dick's. He is particularly interested in validating the Faustian element of his own writing, by finding it as a source of inspiration for Dick's novels.

He begins by telling us that he avoided reading Dick's works while students kept recommending them, telling him how much his own writing was similar to Dick's in terms of ideas.

Perhaps the tale of Rickels' personal journey through the novels of Philip K. Dick would have been more interesting than what he has given us. This book is a dull, dry work too heavy with quoted material and devoid of novelty.

Dry, dull writing, with copious copying

Rickels covers ground that others have already explored in more interesting ways. He includes copious quotations from interviews that other authors conducted, most notably Gregg Rickman, as well as various experts in psychology, and Dick's own writing. He spends a bit too much space on the final interviews, which Gwen Lee and Doris Sauter published as What If Our World Is Their Heaven? In fact, his copying of long passages from the work of others borders on plagiarism and is mitigated only by the gaps between the quoted passages.

If you are waiting for Rickels to quit talking about himself, then you will be disappointed. If you want to read Rickels' personal experience with Dick's work, you will also be disappointed.

This book is really about the greatness of Rickels' own body of work, in light of its similarity to the work of Dick, whom Rickels portrays as a gifted madman who was lucky enough to have the idiot-savant talent for words.

For example, from the "Introspection":

"Dick's footing with psychosis allowed him to immerse himself in the legacy of melancholia or narcissism, the deep end of mankind's traditions/transmissions in all talk of life (and death)."

Biography or literary criticism?

Much of this book focuses on Philip K. Dick's early childhood, even though it purports to be about Dick's science fiction.

In fact, aside from long quoted passages, Rickels spends precious little space on analysis of Dick's work. For example the chapter titled "Indexical Layer", which purports analyze Dick's novel Deus Irae (co-authored with Roger Zelazny), summarizes the entire novel, drawing upon Lawrence Sutin's biographical work Divine Invasions for some semblance of analysis.

The next chapter, "Ilse", bears no relation to the subject at hand. It recounts the story of a woman who wrote a memoir about her experience of psychosis. Rickels' asserts that Dick read Ilse's story in a psychiatric case book, and he concludes that Dick spent his entire career following the same path of "striking up that balancing act between Shakespeare and Goethe"(page 169), as if one psychiatric case study had inspired a life's work of literary genius. In fact, most of Rickels' book asserts that all of Dick's work is Germanic, specifically Faustian. This seems to reflect Rickels' quest to define the devil in his own writing, a task that he admits to having put off for many years. Rickels obsesses about Faust, so he assumes that Dick also did.

Flat ending

The final chapter, "Das Hund", explores Dick's novel UBIK, which explored the possibility of communication with the dead. Unfortunately, this novel belongs to the middle of Dick's career, not the end. Rather than representing the culmination of Dick's philosophy and work, it marks only one of the questions that he asked along the way to his final novels, which have been published as the VALIS trilogy.

Ultimately Dick's work affirms life, love and salvation. Rickels wants it to affirm death, damnation and the devil.

Final thoughts

Although I do not like this book, and I find it seriously flawed, I am forced to recommend it for the quotations from other authors, especially the work of Gregg Rickman and that of Doris Sauter and Gwen Lee.

This book provides easy access to excerpts from works that might be difficult to find in their original form.

~~~
Thank you so much for reading my review!
~~~

Book Review - From Utopia to Apocalypse, by Peter Y. Paik

2010-07-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Book Review - From Utopia to Apocalypse, by Peter Y. Paik

This dense, heavily foot-noted academic thesis is targeted more to the political scientist than to the science fiction reader. In fact, most of the "literature" cited consists of comic books and movies.

Reading the Introduction is like jogging through Jello. The thesis, clouded in a haze of equivocation, seems to be that the leadership must employ violent and repressive means to achieve and maintain Utopia, which of course is a contradiction and ultimately leads to failure. Paik explores the Soviet and Chinese Communist experiments, while conveniently overlooking the American experiment in liberty.

In the same way, Paik ignores the vast genre of science fiction while setting up superheroes as his examples of those who live under an obligation not to abuse their great gifts, no matter what the ultimate goal.

This book is interesting and belongs on the academic bookshelf, but do not expect to find an exploration of science fiction between its covers.

Celebrate Independence Day, July 4, 2010

2010-07-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

We live in a Constitutional Republic, folks, NOT a Democracy.

Celebrate Independence Day, July 4, 2010

Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio -- interview available!

2010-06-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

Miguel Conner's interview with Anthony Peake and me is now available on Aeon Byte!

Purr!

http://aeonbyte.blogspot.com/2010/06/tenth-entry-for-schrodiners-diary-tessa.html

Anthony Peake is the author of The Daemon, which includes a chapter about Philip K. Dick.

~~~

Interviews done

2010-05-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Miguel Conner of Aeon Byte conducted an interview with Anthony Peake (author of The Daemon and Cheating the Ferryman) and me. Am looking forward to it. Will let everybody know when it's posted.

Meanwhile, X-zone interviewed me for their internationally syndicated radio program.

scroll down to the archives

Apple iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=295327298

or

'X' Zone Podcasts : http://www.xzonepodcast.com

~~~

And Jeff and Guy of Mabus Incarnate also interviewed me.

http://thechurchofmabus.podbean.com/

Original Fiction

2010-05-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

Lots of cool stuff to read, from Republibot!

http://republibot.com/content/republibot-original-fiction

~~~

Strange deadly fungus, missing microbiologist

2010-05-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

A deadly fungus is moving south in the American Northwest, killing people and animals in Washington state, Idaho and Oregon. The fungus, first found on British Columbia's Vancouver Island, is muchmore deadly than other strains. The spores can be carried on the wind or on shoes and clothing, and they can be picked up be walking on infected ground.

So how is this connected to a missing microbiologist?

The same microbiologist, who declined to speak on the record and who recounted extensive fungus work at Fort Detrick, also stated that researchers at Israel's Institute for Biological Research, located in Ness-Ziona about 20 km from Tel Aviv, have worked with the Cryptococcus gatti fungus. They also report that mysterious Israeli-American scientist Joseph Moshe, 56 years old, may have conducted covert studies with the fungus while he was recently living in California. This report concerning Moshe is especially interesting because Moshe was briefly in the international spotlight in 2009 when he was the subject of a spectacular chase and arrest by the LA police department and SWAT team, assisted by the FBI, Secret Service, CIA, US Army and several other unidentified federal officials. That highly unusual arrest has never been fully explained to the media, and the whereabouts of Moshe has remained unknown since its occurrence. Compounding the mystery surrounding the Moshe case is that there is another scientist named Moshe Bar-Joseph who works in Israel and who looks remarkably like Joseph Moshe, except that he is about 20 years older.

Mystery Disease Linked to Missing Israeli Scientist

~~~

Night owls more intelligent, study shows

2010-05-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

Night owls are more intelligent than morning larks, according to a study published in Psychology Today.

In fact, the later you go to bed, up until about half past midnight, the more intelligent you are likely to be.

Unlike other species,

humans, unlike other mammalian species, have the unique ability, consciously and cognitively, to override their internal biological clock and its rhythmic outputs. In other words, at least for humans, circadian rhythm is not entirely a matter of genetics. Within broad genetic constraints, humans can choose what time to go to bed and get up. Humans can choose to be night owls or morning larks.

Why Night Owls Are More Intelligent than Morning Larks

~~~

Quachi and other stories

2010-05-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

If you enjoyed my novels, you will also enjoy my collection, Quachi and other stories and poems.

The title story explores sacrificial worship in ancient Peru.

Other topics include Arthurian legend from Morgana's point of view, a pet cat who earns his keep and robot warriors that get out of control.

The poems explore startling topics having little to do with romance or pretty flowers.

~~~

X Zone interview done

2010-05-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

May 3, 2010

my interview will be on the net after 8 tonight

(that might be Eastern Time, or 5 here on the West coast)

I got this message:

Thank you for being on The 'X' Zone

Thank you for being on the show with me yesterday, it was truly a pleasure speaking with you and I am sure our listeners will enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Your interview is now available on the following sites after 8 pm Eastern tonight:

Apple iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=295327298

'X' Zone Podcasts : http://www.xzonepodcast.com

~~~

Interviews in the works

2010-04-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

Miguel Conner of Aeon Byte is setting up an interview with Anthony Peake (author of The Daemon) and me. Am looking forward to it. Will let everybody know when it's available.

Meanwhile, X-zone is interviewing me for their internationally syndicated radio program.

~~~

Cats talk about UFOs

2010-04-25T16:35:00.001-07:00

Cats talk about UFOs

~~~

The Devil’s name is not Satan

2010-04-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Devil’s name is not Satan. Those are titles or roles, not personal names. Various entities can and do take on those roles, but those are not their names. Similarly, a church can have a pastor, priest or minister, but those are not personal names.

The fallen angel Lucifer fills those roles as the Devil (accuser, witness for the prosecution) and Satan (adversary, prosecuting attorney).

Lucifer, the shining one who fell and took a third of Heaven, is known as the Greek god Apollo, the Mesopotamian god Marduk and the Philistine god Baal.

Lucifer is associated with the planet Mars. Various Bible translations have called him the morning star, which is Venus, but the original actually calls him the day star, and that is Mars.

New Orleans, cancer research and Oswald

2010-04-16T10:11:00.001-07:00

Dr. Mary's monkey virus, polio vaccination and JFK

2010-04-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

Was It Johnson ? - Part 1

2010-04-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought that nothing could live in Antarctica

2010-03-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought that nothing could live in Antarctica -- well, maybe microbes, maybe algae, but surely no animals. Wrong!

NASA researchers have found shrimp and jellyfish living in the ocean under the Antarctic ice.

If they can live there, why not little critters on Mars?

In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.

Six hundred feet below the ice where no light shines, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes could exist.

Yup, life thrives in a hostile environment.

"We were operating on the presumption that nothing's there," said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler, who will be presenting the initial findings and a video at an American Geophysical Union meeting Wednesday. "It was a shrimp you'd enjoy having on your plate."

NASA finds

~~~

New photos of Phobos, a moon of Mars

2010-03-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

During a flyby on March 7, the Mars Express spacecraft took new photos of Phobos, a potato-shaped moon that measures about 2o miles on its long axis.

Phobos is puzzling. According to data from fly-by spacecraft, its composition is similar to a type of asteroid called carbonaceous chondrite, but if it is a captured asteroid, then it is difficult to explain how it came into an equatorial orbit with only one side of the moon facing Mars at all times.

The Russian Federal Space Agency plans to put a lander on Phobos in 2011 to scoop up some soil and send it back to Earth for analysis.

New Photos Show Potential Landing Sites on Mars Moon
By SPACE.com Staff

In a late-night radio interview on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, researcher Richard Hoagland discussed the possibility that Phobos is an artificial satellite that was bombarded with dust in the ancient past, leading to its present appearance.

Richard Hoagland

Coast to Coast

~~~

The Nephilim -- book excerpt

2010-02-15T10:06:00.000-08:00

from 2010 and Beyond: Ancient Secrets and Mysteries

Fallen Angels Marrying Human Women

“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” – Genesis 6:4

Many evangelists will tell you that the sons of God were the line of Seth, the godly descendants of Adam, and that the daughters of men were from the line of Cain, who murdered his brother Abel. That position is untenable, since every other instance of the phrase “sons of God” in the Bible refers to angels. For example, Job 1:6 says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among them.” In addition, the phrase “daughters of men” actually says “daughters of Adam”, which includes all of the descendants of Adam, including the lines of both Seth and Cain. Besides, if the line of Seth were so godly, then why did God destroy most of them – all but Noah and his family – in the Flood?

The Bible does tell us that angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30), but it does not tell us that fallen angels do not violate this law. The fallen angels who joined Lucifer in rebellion against God certainly would not hesitate to violate God’s law. More specifically, the angels in Heaven do not marry (Jude 6:7), and the fallen angels are not in Heaven. God has bound most of them in chains in the depths of Hell, in Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4).

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same which became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” – Genesis 6:4

Indeed there were giants in the world in those days, but the verse in Genesis does not say giants – it says Nephilim, which means the fallen ones, referring to the angels who fell from Heaven. The Greek translation of that word was Gigantes, which means earth-born, and the King James scholars transliterated it as giants. The term earth-born almost certainly refers to the Titans of Greek myth, who emerged from inside the Earth, where they had been imprisoned by their father Ouranos (Heaven). Also, the word translated as renown actually means bad reputation. The King James translators use the word mighty, with roots referring to war, to translate a word that means warrior. So they were warriors of bad reputation.

Not all of those offspring of the angels were giants, but some of them were giants, and God did consider all of them evil. The cross-breeding of angels with humans was an abomination in the sight of God. When God later commanded the Israelites to kill all the members of certain tribes in Palestine, it was due to their genetic impurity – they were part fallen angel. Noah was “perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9) because he was completely human and did not have any nonhuman ancestors.

Gilgamesh, the hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh, was two-thirds divine. (See: Hamlet’s Mill, Chapter 23).

Tradition and myth back up the position that fallen angels mated with human women, creating the heroes such as Herakles (Latin Hercules) in Greek myth, the half-human half-god giant who performed twelve great feats of strength. Herakles was not a nice person, either. The gods ordered him to perform his twelve labors as penance for having murdered his wife. Many of the “mighty men” were giants, and all were evil in the sight of God. The best-known Biblical instance of one of the giants is Goliath, the Philistine giant that David killed by tossing a stone with his sling and hitting Goliath on the forehead. This tale confirms the statement in Genesis 6 that the sons of God continued mating with the daughters of Adam after the Flood, thus creating more giants. The Bible tells us that David picked up five stones before this encounter, and that does not call into question David’s faith that God would guide the stone to kill the giant. The fact is that Goliath had four brothers, and they were also giants. Interestingly, five is the number of God’s grace; according to Exodus, the Israelites marched out of Egypt in groups of five and not one among them was ill or lame.

The Greek myths portray many instances of gods mating with human women. For example, they tell us that Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leta. She gave birth to an egg, and twin girls eventually hatched from that egg. One of those twin girls grew up to be the woman that we know as Helen of Troy.

~~~

Available at Amazon and other online retailers.
~~~

Arctic sea ice not vanishing, just growing slowly

2010-02-14T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Arctic sea ice always melts in the summer and always grows in the winter. It is not vanishing.

Conditions in context

During January 2010, ice extent grew at an average of 34,000 square kilometers (13,000 square miles) per day. Sea ice extent increased at a fairly steady rate in the early part of the month and then slowed towards the end of January. A brief slowdown in ice growth is not unusual during winter.

Looking over the entire season, this winter continues the recent trend of slower Arctic ice growth. During the 1980s, the average rate of ice growth for January was approximately 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) per day. In comparison, during the 1990s, the average rate of January growth fell to about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) per day. Including 2010, the average for the 2000s is 39,000 square kilometers (15,000 square miles) per day.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

~~~

The Debris Field: Gray Is The Word...

2010-02-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

A good blog, worth checking out.

The Debris Field: Gray Is The Word...